The Battle for Berwick

I mentioned earlier this week Christine Grahame and other SNP members' intention to annex in the name of the Scottish nation the "border" town of Berwick.

The Campaign for an English Parliament has issued a press-release over the matter:

The members of the Campaign for an English Parliament will resist with might and main the attempt being made by the Scottish Nationalist Party to grab Berwick on Tweed which has been part of England since the 13th century - over 700 years- and make it part of Scotland.

I do like that biblical sounding "resist with might and main", but the important point to remember here for later on in the post, is that the CEP are not (as per usual) blaming The Great Unionist Conspiracy for the slight to the English Nation, but their partners in nationalism, the SNP.

Scottish Nationalist Member of the Scottish Parliament Chrstine Grahame supported by fellow SNP members is lodging a vote in the Scottish Parliament in support of this land-grab.

Perhaps inconvenient to point out here that Ms Graham is urging the people of Berwick "return to the fold", now, that seems to me very far from being the same as a "landgrab", more like a call for a referendum. In other words, as far as the SNP is concerned, it'll be up to the people themselves of Berwick to decide on which side of the border they want their town to reside...local democracy in action.

Already the Scottish Parliament has claimed rights over all English rivers such as the River Till in Northumberland which flow into the River Tweed, even though the Tweed is the boundary river between the two nations of England and Scotland and belongs to neither.

I can *claim* all the rights I want to my neighbour's cabbage-patch, doesn't make it legally mine.

And the Scottish Parliament has been able to move southwards the boundary between England and Scotland which till devolution has always run along the very centre of the Solway Firth.

I've tried googling to find out more about this but to no avail; perhaps someone can help me out in the comments; so, there are parts of historic England which post devolution returned to Scotland, how did that happen (genuine question)?

To date the United Kingdom Government with its Scottish Prime Minister and Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer has done nothing to stop these successive land grabs.

And the importance of the fact that Brown and Darling are Scottish (actually Darling technically isn't, he was born in London)? Is the CEP alleging that the Great Unionist Conspiracy is now in cahoots with the Scot Nats or what? Actually, there is a more serious point here; I can understand (although not agree with their logic) why English nationalists are peeved that members of Scottish constituencies preside over them in government. What I find more disturbing though is comments like this one, why is Brown's and Darling's (perceived) birthplace important to the argument- it seems to imply that people born outside England have no right to govern over the *native* English. What about Belfast-born, Labour MP Kate Hoey then, is it OK for her to represent an English constituency? Or let's say, Virendra Kumar Sharma, one of Labour's MPs born on the Asian sub-continent?

"The Scots are stirring up a hornets' nest of real trouble within the United Kingdom with these policies. And we will take them on," stated Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the Campaign.

What did I tell you to remember at the start of the post? That's right, boys and girls, the SNP are, for once, the villains of a CEP piece. But halfway down the press-release, it is now apparently all Scots who now share this desire for McLebensraum at English expense.

It is already intolerable that devolution for Scotland has granted it huge benefits denied to England such as free university education, free personal care for the elderly, free prescriptions, as much as £1500 more spent on each Scot per annum than on any person in England and access to cancer drugs not obtainable in England.

Yes, it is intolerable, but you should be blaming the real culprits here, the architects of the NULabour devolution experiment. And probably it would be wise to keep stum about all those benefits, in case they prove too enticing for the good citizens of Berwick and they do decide to jump ship.

What the Scots are doing is sowing the seeds of real anger and dissension within the Union.

*Sigh* Repeat after me, what the Scottish Nationalists are doing "is sowing the seeds of real anger and dissension within the Union"...and if you only opened your eyes you would see that Salmond and his crew have got you all dancing like puppets to his tune on his Machiavellian strings.

"They are sowing the wind. If they try to grab Berwick, it will be the Union that will reap the whirwind'

And why, oh, why, do you think the SNP are pushing this?
You've fallen in their trap, haven't you... once again.