A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 19th March 1998.

Lord Alderdice, leader of the Northern Ireland Alliance Party, manages to discuss devolution and what he calls the “totality of relationships among these islands” (article, March 17th) without once mentioning England.

Likewise, Robert Jackson, the Conservative MP, managed to write a long letter about national identities (March 14th) without once mentioning the English people, although there was plenty about Scots, Welsh and Irish.

Judging by these and many similar writings, a visitor from outer space would never realise that the English not only exist, but constitute by far the great majority of the population of the United Kingdom.

Lord Alderdice, Mr Jackson and others evidently take for granted the English people’s continue acquiesence in their virtual obliteration by the media.

It is also assumed that the English will always subsidise parliaments, assemblies, language support systems and endless arrays of quangos in parts of the British Isles that are forever proclaiming their differences.

With a Socttish parliament only a matter of months away, the time is now long overdue to settle the “West Lothian” question once and for all.  The English people do not want their country broken up into artificial “regions” as part of a devolution fudge to help keep the Labour Party in power.

There is now no stopping point between a unitary state and a proper federal constitution that is remotely democratic.

Only the restoration of a Parliament for England will do.