Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Nationality Office confirm no English nationality

In this post I emailed the Nationality Office after reading that they had advised somebody there was no such thing as an English nationality and somebody subsequently claiming that this was a breach of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I have had a reply from the Nationality Office advising that under British law there is no English nationality, only British. My contention is that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes no mention of your nationality being restricted to a list your government provides you and that Article 15 is actually there to prevent this from happening.

The following is the reply I got from the Nationality Office with the contents of the attached document and then my reply to them. It's a lot to read but it's worth it.

Their email:

Dear Mr Parr,

Please find attached some information about British nationality law in response to your email below.

The current law does not recognise "English" as a description of nationality and, accordingly, makes no provision for the acquisition (or loss) of "English" nationality.

Anthony Pilgrim
Nationality Policy & Special Cases Unit

Attached Document:

In its legal sense, the term 'nationality' is generally understood to
describe the relationship between an individual and the nation State to which he
or she belongs and owes allegiance.

It seems that use
of the term 'English' as a description of nationality began to decline with the
union of the Scottish and English Crowns in 1603, and ceased altogether after
the passing of the Act of Union in 1707. It was this latter Act which
created the "United Kingdom of Great Britain", the political unit of which
England has since been a constituent part. The addition of Ireland to form
the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" followed in 1801. A
statute of 1536 -the Laws of Wales Act- had brought about the earlier union of
England and Wales.

One of the functions of the modern British
Nationality Acts has been to identify those who, by virtue of their connection
with the United Kingdom, are British nationals and as such are eligible for
British passports and other associated rights and privileges. The current
law –the British Nationality Act 1981- continues that tradition. It
identifies 6 categories of British nationality as follows: British
citizenship, British overseas territories citizenship, British Overseas
citizenship, and the statuses of British National (Overseas), British subject
and British protected person. The first two reflect the holder’s close
connection (i.e. through birth, adoption, ancestry, registration or
naturalisation) with either the United Kingdom or a remaining British overseas
territory such as Gibraltar. The others reflect similar connections with
former colonies such as India or Malaysia or with foreign territories which were
formerly under British jurisdiction such as Tanzania or the Republic of
Ireland.

Further information about the British Nationality Act 1981
may be obtained by writing to the Nationality Enquiries Section, Home Office
Nationality Group, 3rd floor India Buildings, Water Street, Liverpool L2
0QN. The telephone number is 0845 010 5200.

The legislation
on devolution envisages that nationality law will continue to be made and
administered on a United Kingdom basis, and that there will be no abandonment of
British citizenship in favour of separate English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern
Irish citizenships.
My email:

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly.

I have checked and there is nothing in the Universal Declaration on HumanRights that specifies that a nationality be one that your government offers you from a list. In fact, Article 15 of the declaration is there to basically counter the situation where your government denies you the right to your nationality or to change you your nationality.

My nationality is English. I was born in England, have lived in England all my life and feel English. I do not feel British.

I do not believe that the government, having signed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, has the legal right to dictate to me what my nationality is allowed to be. If I wanted to change my nationality to, say, Albanian, I would be entitled to do so without the government having passed a law recognising an Albanian nationality. Why, therefore, should the same apply to the English nationality.

I believe that this policy compromises my human rights.

Regards,

Stuart Parr

Monday, June 27, 2005

File-share creators screwed over

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the creators of file-sharing software are to blame for whatever its users do with it. This means that the creators of software such as Kazaa or Bittorrent could be sued because some of the users of their software use it to share files illegally.

I am going to start distributing a new tool that can be used to pirate books. It's a revolutionary tool that will allow you to make as many copies of written works as you like. It's called a pen and paper. Just make sure you don't use it to share any books illegally though because I may get sued by the publishing company for helping users copy and share copyrighted works.

What absolute rubbish this ruling is. They obviously didn't think this through very well. I copied half a sentence from the BBC News website so the BBC could sue Google for letting me use Blogger to copy and share half a sentence from their website.

AA put speed cameras on maps

The AA have put speed camera locations on their maps for 2006. Almost immediately after the announcement, traffic pressure groups have condemed the move and one, Transport 2000, branded it irresponsible.

Now, as our beloved masters in Westminster tell us, speed cameras are all about safety - reducing casualties - not extorting money out of motorists. If motorists know where the speed cameras are then they will slow down when they come to them. As they are only supposed to be in dangerous accident blackspots, slowing motorists down must surely be a good thing?

Government will deport Zimbabweans

The government has decided that it will resume the deportation of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers.

Ok, I personally think that asylum seekers should be supervised until their claim is processed and if they fail in ther bid then they should be immediately deported. However, sending failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe with the tyrant Mugabe still in power is as good as murder. You may as well put a bullet in their backs at Folkestone and save the air fare.

Kashmiri nationality on census?

MP for Wycombe, Paul Goodmanwill today ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is in relation to recognising Kashmiris as an ethnic group in the 2011 census.

Still no mention of English nationality on the census though,

Richard Whitely

Richard Whitely, he of Countdown fame, died yesterday. I didn't even know he was ill but apparently he's had heart problems.

It's a bit strange really because he's been on the telly since I was a kid - he's always been there, always been happy and always had some hideous tie hanging round his neck. He had a thing for weird place names too and he's responsible for what is probably the only mention on TV for a hamlet near where I grew up called "Wig Wig".

He seemed like a nice chap and it's a shame to see he's gone. Countdown will never be the same without him, I hope Channel 4 do the sensible thing and pull the plug.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Sean Connery complaining ... again

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4623759.stm

Born-again Scottish Nationalist, Sean Connery, has complained about the lack of support the tennis player Andy Murray got from the government and for Scottish sports people in general. Apparently it's because they're Scottish and being discriminated against.

He complains about a Scottish squash player playing for England because he wasn't funded in Scotland and says that the UK government should be doing more.

Tell you what Sir Sean, speak to the Scottish Executive because this is a devolved issue. Scotland gets more than it's fair share of our taxes as it is without yet another drain on English taxes for something that will only benefit Scotland.

Here are a couple of his quotes:

"The way they help people, certainly from Scotland, is zilch in the UK"

"I hope the tennis people get off their arses and do something about it and not hold it against him that he comes from Scotland.

"There is no such thing as English nationality"

According to the Nationality Office, there is no such thing as English nationality.

This has been reported on the Cross of St George forum and the CEP blog.

Gareth at the CEP has provided us with a chink in their armour - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

My email ...




Hi,

I have seen an email from your office stating that "There is no such thing as English nationality."

Interesting. I presume that you are unaware of the fact that 85% of the population of the UK is English?

I would like to bring Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to your attention. It says "Everyone has the right to a nationality" and that "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality."

As the UK government signed this declaration, would you please advise me what mechanism has been put into place to allow English people to change their nationality from British to English? I would be obliged if you would forward me any necessary paperwork to set this in motion.

Thank you,

Stuart Parr

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Blair's new title


Traitor Blair has been given a new title to reflect the revised political status of the UK.

He will no long be referred to as the Prime Minister of the UK, he will henceforth be styled "Chief Regional Administrator Blair of the Brittanic Republic".

Chief Regional Administrator Blair is pictured here at the official naming ceremony.

Mugabe defends actions, Africa turns blind eye

Human Rights abuser, Robert Mugabe, has defended his actions in Operation Destroy the Opposition Restore Order saying that he was carrying out a pledge to "revitalise our cities and towns and to deliver as many as 1.2 million housing units and residential stands by the year 2008. We also undertook to reorganise our SMEs [small and medium business enterprises] so they could grow and expand in an environment that is supportive, clean and decent."

No mention of the 250,000 people they've made homeless, the people who've been forced to demolish their own homes at gunpoint or the people (including children) who have been killed inside their homes while they were being demolished.

The G8 countries have finally woken up to what's going on and the UK has been lobbying the South African government to use its influence to try and stop the criminal Mugabe. However, far from stepping in to try and prevent the deliberately engineered humanitarian disaster, the South African president has told the press how irritated he is at having the British government phoning him and asking him to do something.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

EDP looking for a candidate

The English Democrats (EDP) are looking for a candidate to contest the Cheadle By-Election.

If you think you're up for the challenge, you're pro-English and you can afford the deposit get in touch with them - you may even be the first ever MP for the EDP!

Click here for details.

Friday, June 24, 2005

ID cards again

Following on from my previous post about ID cards ...

A couple of people have put their artistic skills to the test to come up with their very own pictures for the "I keep my ID in my pants" idea at The England Project.

Inspired, I decided to produce my own. My apologies in advance for the unpleasant image you are about to view ...







Traitor Blair tells porkies ... again

It seems Traitor Blair, our beloved king ... president ... prime minister ... chief regional administrator, has been telling porkies again.

Tony "I am a passionate pro-European - I always have been" Blair, it turns out, hasn't always been the Europhile he claims to be. The Englishman's Castle tells us that the Traitor's election propoganda from 1982 when he stood in the Beaconsfield by-election informs his prospective constituents (who had the good sense not to vote for him) that "We'll negotiate a withdrawal from the E.E.C. which has drained our natural resources and destroyed jobs."

So, it's actually Chief Regional Administrator Tony "I am a passionate pro-European - I always have been ... apart from in 1982 when I was trying to get elected and the best chance I had was to abandon my beliefs and principles and lie to the public" Blair.

Surely, this is the record for the longest name for a British Prime Minister?

English Democrats come 5th

The English Democrats (EDP) have come 5th out of 8 parties in the South Staffs delayed election. They beat the Green Party and two local parties and came in underneath UKIP, Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative in ascending order.

Congratulations to the EDP, their candidate Garry Bushell and campaign manager Steve Uncles. It's a shame they didn't win or at least beat the UKIP freaks but you can't win everything can you? Considering the party has never contested this seat before and the EDP is still relatively unknown, it's a pretty good result.

Better luck next time.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

South Staffs By-Election

If you live in South Staffs, vote English Democrats (EDP). They're the only party to stand for England and pledge to stop the discrimination that is targetted at England on a daily basis.

Here is a message from Garry Bushell, the EDP's candidate in the election:

My name is Garry Bushell. I was born and raised in South East London. My Dad was a fireman, Mum was a Barclay’s Bank secretary. You may know me from TV shows and the Bushell On The Box telly column; but I began my career as a rock writer and I have always campaigned passionately for England and the English.
In my time I have managed rock bands (The Cockney Rejects and The Blood), boxed Lloyd Honeyghan and promoted charity comedy and variety nights. I started working in Fleet Street in 1985; doing shifts at the Daily Mirror and the Evening Standard before landing a staff job on the Sun. In 1987, I put together the Number One single Let It Be, which raised more than £1 million for the families of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster victims - with the help of Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Boy George, Mel & Kim and other top pop stars.
I have been TV editor and showbusiness editor of The Sun and Assistant Editor of The Star. I’ve written a number of successful books including Running Free, the best-selling biography of Iron Maiden, Dance Craze (The Two-Tone Story) and two crime novels, The Face and Two-Faced.
I am also vice president of Dave Lee's Happy Holidays – a charity that provides holidays for sick, disabled and underprivileged children
I was once a member of the Labour Party but became totally disillusioned with politicians and party politics. I am standing in this election to draw attention to the urgent need to reform the way England is governed. I believe absolutely in the rights of the English people to rule ourselves and to celebrate our culture, history, and traditions including free speech, free assembly, habeas corpus and the right to trial by jury.

Goodbye Democracy

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4118404.stm

In a spectacular move towards greater democracy, the Labour government have just appointed 27 new peers giving themselves an overall majority of 6 in the House of Lords. Now they not only control the Commons, they also also control the Lords.

In a further step forward, the government will be removing the remaining 92 hereditary peers leaving only government appointed peers in the House of Lords.

There is even talk of having elections ofr the House of Lords in a barely disguised attempt to give some sense of legitimacy to a government majority in both houses. If the people vote for Labour in the Commons, they're hardly likely to vote Conservative for the Lords are they?

Goodbye Democracy, it's been nice knowing you.

Tax Credits

Tax credits are in the news again. Apparently, 10's of thousands of people have been overpaid and are having their tax credits stopped or reduced while the Inland Revenue (now known as HMRC) claim the money back.

I have been on the receiving end of this when the Tax credit office wrote to me at the end of April to tell me thy had overpaid me and would be taking £100 per week off my tax credits for 5 weeks to claw it back. When I told them I couldn't do without the money and asked them to spread it over the next year they refused, telling me I had been overpaid the previous year too. They hadn't told me that before, just adjusted my award to take it back - very transparent!

When I asked the HMRC for their calculations they gave them to me and they had estimated our joint income to within pennies of the final figure for the tax year. I asked them why they had overpaid me if they had all the correct details but got no answer to that question. Anyway, my pleas for help were ignored and my payments were duly reduced.

Somehow we managed to keep our heads above water for 5 weeks, going heavily overdrawn but managing to oay the bills. Then we got hit by cock-up number two.

When the new tax year started they didn't make a payment at all. We had already filled out our claim renewal pack and been notified of the amount we were supposed to be getting but no payments were forthcoming. I called them up, not best pleased as you can imagine, to be told it was a computer error and it would be a couple of days before the payment was made. Then it was the next week. Then the next. This went on for 3 weeks. I had to sell my car for way under what it was worth because we needed the money. I went to the papers. I phoned constantly and still nothing was done about it. In the end I had to go to the tax office in Telford and get a giro off them to cash at the Post Office.

I tried to complain over the phone as per their complaints procedure only to be told that I wasn't able to complain over the phone and that the leaflet I had been given was out of date. When I told the flunky I was currently reading it off the internet I was told the version on the internet was out of date and they had a more up to date version in the office. I was fobbed off constantly and the only people that helped were Telford Tax Office.

Now, I see on the BBC News website that families who have been overpaid by the HMRC through no fault of their own will have their debt written off. I still haven't sent my letter of complaint and request for compensation yet (Mr Motivation me). I think I'll ask them for the money back.

No more top-up fees for Wales

As of next year, Welsh university students in Wales will not ahve to pay top-up fees. Naturally, English students studying in Wales will have to pay the top-up fees which can be up to £3,000. Scotland already made this move a while back allowing Scottish students to study in Scotland without paying top-up fees whilst they charge up to the full amount for English students. Under both systems, some students from the EU will also be exempt from paying the fees.

This is yet another kick in the teeth for English people, especially when it is English tax payers that are subsidising both schemes via the Barnett Formula.

The Campaign for an English Parliament is considering extending its support for students taking to legal action against the Scottish government to those taking legal action against the Welsh government.

How much more discrimination can we be expected to take?

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Value for money Monarchy

According to this BBC News story, the Monarchy costs us £36m per year - equivalent to 61p a year each. In my opinion, they're worth every penny and every time I see a story about the Queen cutting costs to please Traitor Blair or the government making decisions in her name, it makes me cringe.

To put a positive spin on the cost for the benefit of the country's treasonous republicans, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Alan Reid, has announced that the report into the cost of the Monarchy highlights a "value for money Monarchy".

Value for money? She's the bloody Queen! I just thank god he didn't use the word "prudent" or I might not have been able to control the urge to hunt him down and teach him some respect the old fashioned way.

Flags on number plates

This was first brought to my attention yesterday on the CoSG forum and today by way of a humourous take on it by Alfred the OK.

I am referring to the legality, or rather the illegality, of having a flag on your number plate other than the EU flag.

Under current regulations, the only flag allowed on your number plate is the EU flag with the letters GB underneath. In 2002, the government announced their intention to amend the regulations which were then only a year old, to allow vehicle owners to have a Union Flag, Cross of St George, Welsh Dragon, St Andrew Saltire and Northern Ireland flag (not sure whether that would be the Ulster CoSG or the St Patricks Saltire).

The regulations still haven't been formally amended but the police were asked, by the government, not to prosecute motorists who break the current regulations and replace the EU flag.

Enter the unknown policeman, (dis)affectionately named PC Agenda by Alfie. This policeman decides to take a break from chasing murderers, drug pushers and burglars and catch a real criminal - one Neil Prendergast of Manchester. Mr Prendegast (or Convict 8465 as he is now known) had the audacity to display his country's flag on his car number plate in broad daylight! This breathtaking disregard for the law earnt Convict 8465 a fixed penalty fine.

It's reassuring to see the police taking a break from mundane jobs such as solving crimes, protecting the public and testing out new patrol cars at 159mph and going after the real criminals. I will sleep better at night knowing that the menace of number plates with English flags on are being dealt with with the full force of the law.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Another letter in the Shropshire Star

My letter was published in the Shropshire Star yesterday.




Promise broken for a reason

There is a lot of talk about the EU Constitution being dead but is it?

Traitor Blair and his partners in crime tell us it is and that's why they're breaking their election promise and not holding a referendum on the EU Constitution.

Under the Vienna Convention, the treaty can only, come into force if all 25 member states ratify it.

However, Declaration 30 of the treaty also says-fcfiat as long as there are no more than five countries rejecting it, the treaty can be referred back to the European Council to try and get it approved again.

This is the real reason why the promised referendum has been cancelled.

It has nothing to do with the referendum being dead after receiving only two "no" votes, it is Tony Blair's way of ensuring his beloved constitution lives to see another day.

Stuart Parr
Telford

Blair sells us down the river again

Traitor Blair is selling us down the river again. After defending the UK's £3bn EU rebate, he's now announced that it "has to go". He said it would have to be linked to a reform of farming subsidies but our friends on the continent will have seen a chink in the armour now and won't stop until he caves in and gives it all away.

I keep my ID in my pants

The England Project tells us of a cunning plan to cause some grief if (when) ID cards become compulsory.

Rather than refuse to carry an ID card which would be against the law, they suggest you carry one down your pants and make a show of retrieveing it every time you are requested or required to do so.

An excellent suggestion which I will certainly be happy to do when they eventually drag the law kicking and screaming through parliament against the will of the people.

Anti-English WWF

The WWF have 4 websites for the UK - Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and ... you've guessed it ... United Kingdom.

I don't recall who first brought this to my attention but they wrote to the WWF telling them they would cancel their subs if they didn't establish a WWF England. I wrote to them myself asking where the English WWF website was ...

Can you please tell me where I can find the website for WWF England? I can see one for Scotland, one for Wales, one for Northern Ireland and one for the UK but not one for England. It seems strange that there is still a UK body if there is a body for each country in the UK.

I have just had a reply from them ..

Dear Mr Parr

Thank you for your email about WWF-UK's website.

I appreciate your comments that our work in England is not highlighted on the website and am sorry for any concern this might have caused you. I would like to explain that we have English Region teams and we are currently in the process of creating the content for their homepage. We will be creating a holding page as soon as possible and you will be able to read all about our English Region teams on our website in the near future.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for your interest in WWF.

Yours sincerely,
Joanna Newton (Miss)
Supporter Care Co-ordinator
Supporter Care Team

I'm sorry, English Regions? Not chuffed. I've sent a reply ...

Hi,

Which regions are these? I don't live in a region, I live in England. Ifthere isn't going to be a WWF England I'm not interested in the WWF. I don't see how you can justify a Scottish and Welsh WWF but a group ofregions in place of England. There are no regional governments in Englandto deal with.

If the WWF pursue a policy of regionalisation in England I will have toassume that they wish to join the list of other anti-English organisations with the resulting negative publicity.

I will be compiling a list of organisations that pursue a policy or English regionalisation or any policy of anti-Englishness. Details will follow ...

Monday, June 20, 2005

Mugabe hits out at the rich

The one man human rights disaster that is known as Robert Mugabe has had enough with bullying poor people and decided to hit the few rich people that remain in the now bankrupt and poverty stricken Zimbabwe. Over the last couple of weeks Zimbabwean security forces have bulldozed the homes of around 200,000 poor people, leaving them homeless. They cite planning regulations as an excuse, everyone else says it's because it was mainly the urban Zimbabweans that voted against Mugabe in the election.

Now they've decided to go after the wealthy people, moving their bulldozers into the northern suburbs of Harare. The government says it will be moving against houses that have been turned into offices without permission. It blames the black market and these unaothorised offices for the decimation of the Zimbabwean economy, rather than Mugabe's dictatorial and despotic rule.

Zimbabwe was once known as the bread basket of Africa but now it has to import food and aid. This is as a result of Mugabe's actions in seizing farms from white owners and handing them over to black Zimbabweans who then left them lying fallow because they didn't know how to farm them. This is the reason why Zimbabwe is in such bad shape.

The British government has responded to what it describes as human rights abuses and a man made disaster by telling the British Ambassador in Harare to tell the Zimbabwean government that we're not happy and they should stop. Mugabe must be quaking in his boots.

Blair defends rebate

As much as it pains me, I have to congratulate Traitor Blair on a rare showing of backbone. He has again refused to concede the EU rebate which the French so desparately want to do away with so they can divert another couple of billion euro to their farmers.

I still think he's a treacherous Lame Duck but for once I can't criticise something he's done. The only thing he could have done any better was to give Chiraq a good kicking.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Meeting the Telford Live crew

I met the Telford Live crew the other day ... well, Andy and Chris anyway.

I went to collect some monitors from Telford Live Towers which Andy was selling off cheap. Nice to meet people off the internet, put a name to a face and all that. Of course, Andy has a face that could launch a thousand ships ... of people trying to get away.

Letter in the Sunday Herald

I've had a letter published in the Sunday Herald today. The Sunday Herald is a Scottish national newspaper slanted towards Scottish independence.




THE tone of “Rifkind looks like the right choice” (News, June 12) surprises me somewhat as the general theme seems to be how anti-Scottish the government is. What absolute tosh!

Scotland currently has more devolved power than any other part of the UK, and Scottish politicians hold the majority of senior positions within the Cabinet. On the flip side, England has no devolved government, is denied a referendum on the subject, and has legislation imposed on it against the will of elected English MPs by their Scottish counterparts.

Only a devolved parliament for England, with equal status and powers to that of the Scottish parliament, can end the inequality and bring an end to the rule of the despotic Scottish Raj.

Stuart Parr Telford

Source: http://www.sundayherald.com/50340

Fathers Day

It's Fathers Day today and this year was a bumper year on the cards and presents front as I've got 4 kids this year.

I've taken pictures of my cards - I will only post links as the pictures are sizeable and it'll take forever for this page to load.

Callum's card:
Front Inside

Declan's card:
Front Inside

Joseph's card:
Front Inside

Sophie's card:
Front Inside

Finally, my World's Greatest Daddy award that Callum chose for me.

Plan for today, do as little as possible! I had a lie-in this morning, breakfast in bed and we're just about to go to the Holiday Inn for a meal.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Anger erupts as EU summit fails

According to this article on the BBC News website France, Germany and Luxembourg are angry that Britain will not negotiate its rebate. That is Germany, the EU's biggest economy; Luxembourg, the EU country with the highest GDP; and France, recipient of more farming subsidies than anyone else in the EU.

Jacques Chirac said Britain was being pathetic. He also said he was shocked by the arrogance of several rich countries in the talks.

Let me sum up why Britain is right on this:
  • If it wasn't for the rebate, we would be paying £4bn per year more than France in EU contributions despite being a smaller and less populated country
  • If it wasn't for Frances huge farming subsidies, the EU wouldn't need the extra money
  • Why should we be expected to negotiate away our subsidy for the good of the EU when France refuses to discuss its own farming subsidies? The subsidies paid out to farmers costs the EU nearly half of its budget

When our arrogant, money grabbing partners get their own house in order, perhaps then they can criticise us.

My reading habits

I've been tagged by Gareth of CEP and Toque fame (or should that be infamy?). He wants to know about my book buying/reading habits.

At the moment I'm reading Last Light by Andy McNabb. I like Bravo Two Zero and read another one or two of his books so when I saw 3 Andy McNabb books for £10 at Tesco I bought them. I can't put this one down - I was nearly late for work the other morning!

Prior to this I read Dead Famous by Ben Elton which was a fantastic side-swipe at reality TV and the chav/hippy/trendy 20 somethings that inflict themselves onto society. The plot was great and I didn't know whodunnit until the very end.

My favourite author is Terry Pratchett, author of (amongst others) the Discoworld stories. I've read every one of his novels at least once and own a lot of them (trying to collect them all in hardback).

My favourite book is Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (I know it's lots of books but I've got them all in one so there). The book is hilarious all the way through and every time I read it I find something new that I hadn't noticed before. The best quote from the whole series is near the start of the first book. Ford Prefect (an alien) has managed to "thumb" a lift on a passing flying saucer along with Artur Dent (an earthman who's never been off the planet before). Ford tells him they're about to go into hyperspace and Arthur asks what it's like. Ford tells him "It's rather unpleasently like being drunk". Arthur asks "What's so unpleasent about being drunk?" to which Ford replies "Just ask a drink of water". The name Wonko The Sane also came from H2G2 - Wonko built an inside out asylum to put the universe in. Makes sense.

How many books do I own? I probably have about 40 or so on a bookshelf in the bedroom and about another couple of hundred in boxes in the garage.

Now, who to inflict this questionaire on next ...

I choose:

Alfie takes on the DTI

Full marks to Alfred the OK for spotting another Welsh MP heading up an English department.

Alun Michael, a Welsh MP, is Minister of State for Industry and the Regions. What regions are these then? Can't be the ones the people of the North East voted against because that would be undemocratic wouldn't it?

Anyway, Alfie fired an email off to the DTI asking for clarification and got a reply. Judging by the standard of writing it was from the work experience boy. I've just sent my own email ...




Hi,

Please would you clarify something for me? I see that Alun Michael MP is Minister of State for Industry and the Regions. I was wondering if you could clarify which regions these are and whether he is also responsible for this portfolio in the constituency that elected him. If he isn't, would you mind explaining Mr Michael's views on unelected MP's heading up government departments in other countries.

Thank you in advance,

Stuart Parr

Friday, June 17, 2005

Reply to my letter on the Barnett Formula

I wrote a letter to the Shropshire Star a couple of weeks back on the Barnett Formula and how bad a deal it is for the English. A couple of days back, another reader wrote a letter in referring to it.




English taxpayers hit unfairly by government
Thank you Stuart Parr for your letter in the June 3 issue about the Barnett Formula - I hope it raises more awareness amongst the population of England.
You may find the answer to why the English taxpayer is discriminated by looking at the present make-up of our government, in which Scots hold ministerial positions, particularly the two most senior, out of all proportion to the Scottish population.
It is true that the Prime Minister opposed an English Parliament and yet promotes our country being broken up into regions, so giving the lie to his claim that our own Parliament would cause the break-up of the UK.
Whatever the reason, England goes on paying and will continue to do so until the population wakes up to the dreadful deeds being played upon them.
John Thornicroft, Market Drayton

Source: Shropshire Star

Campaign: England in Blogger

Blogger don't offer the choice of England in the country list for your Blogger profile - just United Kingdom. Given that Blogger seems to be the blog of choice amongst English nationalists, it would only be reasonable for Blogger to offer England, Scotland, Wales and Norther Ireland as a choice right?

I think so, so I fired an email off to the yesterday. I haven't heard back from them yet but in the meantime, it might help if some likeminded individuals wrote to Blogger asking them to put England in the country list.

I suggest something along the lines of ...

Hi,

I would like to set my country to England in my Blogger profile but am unable to as my country doesn't appear in the list. Blogger is very popular with English bloggers so would you please address this issue as soon as possible?

Thanks,

[Your Name]

Court rules England & Scotland separate nations

Alfie and Gareth have an interesting discussion on BBC Scotland settling on a racial discrimination case against an English person.

Mark Souster claimed he lost his job commentating on Scottish rugby for the BBC because he was English. The BBC have settled out of court but the most important thing in this is that the Court of Session overturned a ruling that the Race Relations Act didn't allow a tribunal to hear the case because England and Scotland are not separate racial groups. The court ruled that English and Scottish people are separate racial groups and as such discrimination between the two is classed as racism.

I think it's time we asked the race relations people to open a case against the government.

Scots won't need ID cards

According to this article on the BBC News website, Scots won't need to use ID cards to access devolved services as they are a "real threat" to civil liberties and Scots would be "paying through the nose to have their privacy invaded, with no tangible benefit".

There is hope for us in England though, the English Parliament might stand up for us ... oh wait a minute, we don't have one. Maybe the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly will stand up for us instead?

Thursday, June 16, 2005

My boy is clever - officially!

My eldest son, Callum, has been sent home with a letter from school. Luckily it's not the kind of letter that sends your blood pressure through the roof - he's been put on the "gifted and talented register". Basically, it's a list of pupils who are exceptionally bright in one or more areas and they get extra encouragement and help to make the most of their talents. Callum's teacher said she would have put him in for every category if she could but she had to chose one so she chose literacy. He's reading stuff like Roald Dahl and Harry Potter at the moment. He's 7.

Letter: The EU Constitution

I've fired off another letter to the Shropshire Star tonight, this time on the subject of the EU Constitution and more specifically Traitor Blair cancelling the promised referrendum on the treaty. The real reason the treaty has been cancelled is simple ...




There is a lot of talk about the EU Constitution being dead but is it? Traitor Blair and his partners in crime tell us it is and that's why they're breaking their election promise and not holding a referrendum on the EU Constitution.
Under the Vienna Convention, the treaty can only come into force if all 25 member states ratify it. However, Declaration 30 of the treaty also says that as long as there are no more than 5 countries rejecting it, the treaty can be referred back to the European Council to try and get it approved again.
This is the real reason why the promised referrendum has been cancelled. It has nothing to do with the referrendum being dead after receiving only 2 "No" votes, it is Tony Blair's way of ensuring his beloved constitution lives to see another day.

Harriet Harman's flunky clarifies some point ...

Readers of The Insane Ramblings of Wonko the Sane may recall a letter I sent to Harriet Harman, the Constitutional Cock-up Minister, following her hilarious appearance on Newsnight. One of her nodding dogs replied to it and I emailed a list of questions and requests for clarifications.

Said nodding dog has now replied to answer my questions and clarify the points raised. Somehow, he has managed to write a two page response without actually answering or clarifying anything.




Thank you for your e-mail dated 9 June 2005, which raised a number of questions relating to my letter dated 7 June 2005. I will attempt to address each of your points in turn.

Firstly, you requested further explanation as to my point that the starting point for England was not the same for Scotland and Wales. The four components of the United Kingdom have their own histories and distinct national identities, as well as different administrative structures, size and population. Consequently, the Government believes that different approaches and solutions are appropriate to address the differences that exist between the countries that comprise the United Kingdom.

As previously stated in my letter dated 7 June, as England accounts for 84% of the UK population, this would mean that an English Parliament would only be slightly smaller than the current UK Parliament. This would not contribute towards bringing people closer to the decision making process, which is one of the cornerstones of devolution.

The UK Parliament comprises of MPs who represent constituencies in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, as well as England. Consequently, all UK MPs have the same rights to vote on matters within the UK Parliament and the Government does not support the suggestion that there should be different classes of MPs with different voting rights.

In relation to my reference to the House of Commons rejecting a motion in January 2004, you state that Scottish MPs would not vote to “give away their voting rights on non-Scottish matters.” I would like to highlight that even if all 72 Scottish MPs had voted to reject the motion, switched their vote to support it, the motion would still have been defeated by a large majority.
With regard to your point relating to the Barnett Formula, I can only reiterate that the Government believes that this is the best available means of distributing public spending across the nations of the UK in a fair and stable way, and has provided stable settlements for over 20 years.

Concerning your points regarding the electoral system used for Westminster elections, and the current official level review of the different electoral systems in operation within the United Kingdom, I direct you to my letter dated 7 June 2005.

I hope this provides the additional clarification you sought.

Yours sincerely,



James Copeland
Crown and Devolution

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

What's it all about?

Ok, for a while now I've had a blog at vbCity.com called The Insane Ramblings of Wonko the Sane. I started off talking about me and the odd programming related thing (well, it is supposed to be a programmers blog) but then I kind of got involved in the campaign for an English Parliament. anyway, long story short, the political stuff has completely taken over the blog and it's not what it was intended for so this, ladies and gentlemen, is where you will find all my new rants about England, politics and other stuff.

Let the fun begin

Assuming this works (if you're reading this it has) then I have successfully got a blog up and running on my site.