The UK government unveiled its English Devolution Whitepaper this week in which it sets out how it will avoid introducing devolution to England.

Devolution It Is Not: A Closer Look at the English Devolution White Paper Explore the English Devolution White Paper, its proposed changes, and whether it represents true devolution or a patchwork solution.

"England still remains without a common voice on its issues. In the absence of that voice, the question remains: can true devolution ever exist without an English parliament, or will we continue to see patchwork solutions that only address part of the problem?"

Straight up disinformation. Nothing here applies to Britain, it's all England-only policy and spending.
#SayEngland #ThatsDevolved

England centralises power: Labour learns nothing from Scotland. Labour intends to ditch local democracy and move power closer to Parliament. Scotland did this years ago.
The discussion should be how to move democracy
CLOSER to the people, not removing it.

buildlocal.scot

Why can’t the English realise? European Movement UK recently did a webinar featuring Caroline Lucas and John Denham on the Role of National Identity in the Journey Back to Europe. It’s well worth a watch.In the Q&As th…

Why can’t the English realise that their national / regional identity is far more protected within the European Union than within the UK?
englishcommonwealth.net/2024/12/14/w...

Across, not to, unfortunately.

The UK Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has indicated that the UK Housing Secretary will be given the power to bypass local authorities and approve the building of new prisons in England.

What about England? Writing in the pages of New Statesman, democracy campaigner and all round good-egg Anthony Barnett has asked its readers ‘what about my country?’. Barnett speaks as an Englishman who wa…

'What about England?' asks Anthony Barnett.

England loses shape in this regional rejig Behind Labour’s drive for a council of regions and empowered mayors lies a shrouded attack on English nationhood

"Behind Labour’s drive for a council of regions and empowered mayors lies a shrouded attack on English nationhood"
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Who can answer the English Question? Great Britain’s largest constituent is a nation lost within a multinational state.

1. Who do you call if you want to call England?

The first of three Q's in a special Xmas quiz I've written for Jason Cowley's final edition of his @newstatesman.com editorship: www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/1... (thread)

The Conspiracy of Silence and how the Tories screwed England The Conservative Party spent many years telling those of us who wanted an English parliament that an English parliament was not required because English Votes on English Laws (EVEL) was the answer.…

The Conspiracy of Silence and how the Tories screwed England
#Conservatives #Tories

Why cannot Labour explicitly talk abt England? A majority of Starmer's milestones unveiled today are England specific. Yet this is not explicit in the presentation & politics today. Not talking abt England confuses voters & leaves the populist right to claim this territory. #C4News

What does the UK Labour Party's Plan for Change mean for you?

Rather more if you live in England than it does if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
#LabourParty #labour #milestones #planforchange

But not in partnership with the people of England.

England won't be consulted on how it wants to be governed as a nation.

The Barnett Formula ensures that Scotland and Northern Ireland receive far more than England and Wales, irrespective of what each nation contributes. It's unfair.

It's long past time we moved to a needs-based funding formula or allowed each nation to finance itself through taxation.

Not to mention the Barnett Formula.

But positive examples might include Caroline Lucas' Another England, Gareth Southgate's various words about an inclusive England team, Raise the Flag, Three Acres and a Cow, the small community events on St George's Day, etc.

Positive examples are few and far between because the body politic in England sees Britishness as the legitimate civic nationalism, and English nationalism as a reaction to (or threat to) that.

So politicians just don't speak of England.

They're not really English nationalists.

There are, however, some of us who do think that England should be a normal nation with its own democracy, institutions, anthem, first minister, etc.

They're Anglo-centric British nationalists. And that includes Scots like Gordon Brown. They don't have a discrete sense of England and think that England having a discrete political sense of itself would undermine Britain and Britishness. In that respect they're anti-English.

How do you explain Scottish and Northern Irish MPs voting against while English and Welsh MPs voted for?

More religious societies?

Back in 2010, IPPR's Michael Kenny & Guy Lodge surveyed MPs on their attitudes to the Barnett Formula.

62% said it was unfair, yet 14 years later nothing has been done about it.

Screencap from 'The English Question: The View from Westminster'

The only use of the word 'England' in the Reform UK manifesto is in the names 'Bank of England' and 'Natural England'.

There are 40 mentions of Britain, including "Only Reform UK will secure Britain’s future as a free, proud and independent sovereign nation."

Definitely British nationalist.

Voters in Scotland ‘not as angry’ as the English Some 60% of voters in England are enraged by politics, but Scots are more optimistic about the future and less nostalgic for a rosy past

"Some 60% of voters in England are enraged by politics, but Scots are more optimistic about the future and less nostalgic for a rosy past"

Now why could that be?
www.thetimes.com/article/bdfc...

A government of the English people by the English people for the English people? An English parliament is often portrayed as a right-wing issue but support comes from across the political spectrum. “the most effective solution to the political dilemma of Englishness would…

An English parliament is often portrayed as a right-wing issue but support comes from across the political spectrum.

a woman in a hijab is standing in front of a crowd of people and says shame shame shame shame . ALT: a woman in a hijab is standing in front of a crowd of people and says shame shame shame shame .

A walk of shame across Westminster Bridge would be good. Step up Rifkind, Clarke, Johnson - pretty much every Tory MP, actually.

It's a shame that all those politicians and political commentators who argued that 'we don't need an English parliament because: English votes on English Laws' don't seem able to admit they were wrong.

Enjoy their pain.

Your former leader, Charles Kennedy:

"Scotland has a Parliament.
Wales an Assembly.
Northern Ireland, soon I hope, a working Assembly too.
In England , regionalism is growing as never before.
Calling into question, as it happens, the idea of England itself."

No they won't.

With regional assemblies, England will have no national voice.

The Scots and Welsh will have national representation and England will not. And no one is seriously proposing that regional assemblies in England should have the same powers as the Scottish Parliament.