Band of Brothers – Recovering the English Nation
June 14th, 2012
Fifth, Britain’s humanitarian missions, the greatest of which was the suppression of the Africa-Americas, and Africa-Asia slave trades by means of the Royal Navy’s anti-slavery patrols maintained over a hundred years from 1807-1914.
Sixth, the landscape of England, with its unique countryside, remarked on by visitors the world over – the product of 14 centuries of English labour and devotion[31].
England’s Future
While the unique English inheritance as outlined above needs proclaiming, not least to the English people themselves, the English present needs urgent attention. The presence of around 10 million non-English out of 52 million people in England must not be allowed to obscure the fact that politically the English people are extremely badly treated by the present constitution of the British state. There are no other nations scoring over 4 on the nationism scale that do not have their own parliament – certainly none with over 40 million residents in their historic homeland.
The Scottish National Party is forcing the pace of constitutional change in Britain with its policy of separating Scotland altogether from the United Kingdom. Instead of rather pathetically trying to fend off the challenge with a mixture of vague threats and promises, the British government – which is actually wholly responsible for UK constitutional matters – should seize the moment to promote a new United Kingdom-wide constitutional settlement. As in the rest of the Anglo-world, this would provide for parliaments in each of the (four) distinctive parts of the United Kingdom, having devolved powers broadly the same as those which Scotland now enjoys. The English parliament would be formed by those MPs elected for English seats at a UK-wide General Election. The UK prime minister would not be the same person as the English first minister. The English parliament would sit in the present House of Commons chamber while the UK Parliament would sit in the present House of Lords, which would be replaced by an elected Senate and accommodated elsewhere.
There is however an even more pressing constitutional matter and that is Britain’s membership of the European Union. Faced with a chronic balance of trade deficit which has continuously depreciated the pound sterling and kept unemployment unnecessarily high[32], Britain has been distracted from giving this problem the undivided attention it deserves, not only by immigration, but by its 39 year membership of the European Union. The union of the 30-odd disparate nations of Europe in a single internationally recognised state has been the unflinching goal of the continental political class since the Frenchman Jean Monnet formulated the objective in 1958[33].
Now as then there is no fudging, “No Middle Way”[34] between mutually exclusive alternatives – in or out. The passing of the Act of Supremacy in 1558 (Elizabeth I) made it clear that England, on the fringe of Europe then as now, would go her own way. Repeal of the European Communities Act 1972, now in sight, will be Elizabeth II’s Act of Supremacy, breathing into “we band of brothers”[35] in Britain and England a renewed spirit of enterprise and hope.