Sunday, April 6, 2008

English Democrats hit Edinburgh

Why on earth would a London Mayoral Candidate want to unveil his posters at Holyrood?

Beats me, ask the English Democrats.
And here (courtesy of Iain Dale) are those posters...

...and there flies in another goal for Alex Salmond and the SNP.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Exactly.

And why do the English Democrats exist now, when nobody would have even considered forming such a party in 1997?

They could defuse English anger by giving us equality with our own Parliament, but your so-called "Unionist" politicians are utterly determined to keep the English as second-class citizens.

The Union is looking more and more like a slow-motion train crash.

O'Neill said...

You've skirted round the point of post, whether deliberately or not I don't know;)

The English Democrats have an argument about the funds which are *diverted* to Scotland- it's not one that I'd necessarily agree with: (http://unionistlite.blogspot.com/2008/01/london-repaying-its-debt.html), but it's an argument they are perfectly entitled to make.

These posters however border on the (if you accept the Scots are a different race) racist/xenophobic- they are unnecessarily nasty.

Also, what's the point exactly of launching them in Scotland when the election is for Lord mayor of London?
It's a purely provocative attempt at pulling out some cheap publicity...but for a party that genuinely wants to build a base in order to change how we think about politics in the UK it will prove to be counter-provocative.

Regarding my own Unionist politicians, if you mean Brown, Straw and Co- Brown's *Unionism* is opportunist, that he was one of the prime movers behind the devolutionnepxeriment in 97 that is casuing so much havoc and danger to the Union today.

The fight to preserve the Union, if it succeeds, will do so despite the efforts of Brown and Co, not because of them.

O'Neill said...

Regarding my own Unionist politicians, if you mean Brown, Straw and Co- Brown's *Unionism* is opportunist, that he was one of the prime movers behind the devolutionnepxeriment in 97 that is casuing so much havoc and danger to the Union today

I'll try that again:

Regarding my own Unionist politicians, if you mean Brown, Straw and Co- Brown's *Unionism* is purely opportunist,he is after all, one of the prime movers behind the devolution experiment in 97 that is causing so much havoc and danger to the Union today.

Unknown said...

I think the posters are perfectly reasonable and not at all "xenophobic". Or are you now suggesting that the English and Scots are different "races"?

And you're quite right that they're a publicity stunt. But aren't all political posters? It's quite common for political parties to pay for just a single poster and then have a Press Release/Conference at the sight when they unveil it.

So how can the English Democrats guarantee press coverage? By making sure the Scottish press covers it, it causes a fuss, and hey presto it's now in the English press as well. Rather than being quietly ignored.

And finally, the Barnett Formula is a sympton, not the cause. It's expressly and openly based upon payments made upon nationality, not need. And the English are the only ones without a representative body to represent (and defend) us.

Let's face it, there's no way that Holyrood (or Stormont) are going to complain about the Barnett largesse as being unfair to their "fellow citizens" in the Union is there?

And if the Union outside England is primarily predicated upon what benefts can be screwed out of the English, then what benefits do we get?

If we aren't a single people under a single Parliament with a shared future going forward then we might as well be honest about it, break up the UK and then see which areas we can agree to co-operate and work together in.

O'Neill said...

"I think the posters are perfectly reasonable and not at all "xenophobic". Or are you now suggesting that the English and Scots are different "races"?"

No I don't think they are, however, dressing up a thief in a tartan balaclava in the first picture and using such a stereoptypical epithet as "Jock" in the second poster does cross over the line as far as I'm concerned and is no longer acceptable humour-it's as if you're holding the entire Scottish people responsible for an unfair) system- it's Brown and the whole devolved shambles that's to blame and I reckon they should have been your prime target) but I guess we'll just have to disagree on that.

Re. the publicity, yep, you've certainly achieved that, but whether ultimately that will get people in England to take your demands seriously or not long term is another question