As it is St George's Day on Sunday.........
Let's Have Home Rule For The English.
Fergus Shanahan, Deputy Editor of The Sun and a proud Englishman.
England needs to get its independence from Scotland.
There's a great line in Braveheart where the slippery King Edward says: "The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scots."
I have nothing personal against Scots. Some of my best friends are Scots.
But I am fed up with the way Scotland is allowed to run England. And as St George's Day approaches this Sunday, and England rallies proudly around its flag for the World Cup, this is the moment for the English to ask ourselves what we want to do about it.
Scotland is a great country. It has always punched above its weight.
William Wallace. James Watt. Rabbie Burns. Robbie Coltrane. The Bay City Rollers.
But what can you say about a nation that has Donald Where's Yer Troosers as its national anthem?
Scotland wants to go its own way. So does Wales.
The Scots have their Parliament. The Welsh have their Assembly. Even the Northern Irish are allowed self-government if they can stop squabbling long enough.
So why not the English?
It's the English who pick up most of Scotland's bills: £10 billion a year of English taxes go in Scot pockets.
On average, £1,300 more per person is spent on education, health, and social services in Scotland, Wales and Ulster than in England.
The Scottish Parliament refuses to charge students tuition fees. Yet Scots Labour MPs helped Blair win the Commons top-up fees battle when English MPs were against it.
English MPs voted against foundation hospitals but Blair won with the backing of Scots MPs, even though the Scots Labour party and Scots Parliament OPPOSED them.
It is not the political issues so much as the principle. Why should Scottish MPs UNELECTED by English people be able to run England when English MPs cannot run Scotland?
And as Blair's authority ebbs away he will become ever more dependent on Scottish support to pass laws affecting England.
The unfairness is overwhelming.
All Scottish MPs at Westminster can vote on every issue that affects England. But Westminster has hardly any say over Scotland. Scottish MPs can be ministers in London, handing out orders to the English which have no effect on their own constituents. And the Labour Government is stuffed with Scots, from Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to John Reid and their stooge "Gorbals" Mick Martin, Speaker of the Commons.
Gordon Broon subjects English pensioners to means-testing yet his Dunfermline constituents escape it.
Unlike English OAPs, elderly Scots are not forced to sell their family homes to pay for care.
Since the Scots voted for devolution in 1997 they have taken over running nearly all their affairs. But they are quite happy for England to continue to pick up the bills. I say it's time for Scotland to go the whole hog. Let's treble the height of Hadrian's Wall to form a proper border, and let Scotland and England be independent nations. The Scots can raise their own taxes to pay their way in the world.
There's still a bit of oil left in the North Sea to keep them going. And when that runs out, they can flog some more kilts to the Americans or use their empty oil tankers to ship some water down to the parched farms of Kent and Essex.
As for the Welsh, let them have a crack at self-government too. If they run short of fuel, all they have to do is sit Neil Kinnock in front of a wind turbine and he'll generate enough electricity to light the valleys for a thousand years.
Why shouldn't England be allowed to get excited about itself as an independent nation?
When the Scots and the Welsh and the Northern Irish fly their flag, it is seen as good old-fashioned love of country.
But raise the English flag of St George in your garden and there is an uneasy sense that people may think you are some rabid nutter.
Nationalism, which means quite simply the love of your own nation, has been allowed to become a tainted word.
Come the World Cup the English flag will be flying high.
Let's keep it that way when the footie's over.
It's time England had a new Parliament - for the English.
thesun.co.uk
Let's Have Home Rule For The English.
Fergus Shanahan, Deputy Editor of The Sun and a proud Englishman.
England needs to get its independence from Scotland.
There's a great line in Braveheart where the slippery King Edward says: "The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scots."
I have nothing personal against Scots. Some of my best friends are Scots.
But I am fed up with the way Scotland is allowed to run England. And as St George's Day approaches this Sunday, and England rallies proudly around its flag for the World Cup, this is the moment for the English to ask ourselves what we want to do about it.
Scotland is a great country. It has always punched above its weight.
William Wallace. James Watt. Rabbie Burns. Robbie Coltrane. The Bay City Rollers.
But what can you say about a nation that has Donald Where's Yer Troosers as its national anthem?
Scotland wants to go its own way. So does Wales.
The Scots have their Parliament. The Welsh have their Assembly. Even the Northern Irish are allowed self-government if they can stop squabbling long enough.
So why not the English?
It's the English who pick up most of Scotland's bills: £10 billion a year of English taxes go in Scot pockets.
On average, £1,300 more per person is spent on education, health, and social services in Scotland, Wales and Ulster than in England.
The Scottish Parliament refuses to charge students tuition fees. Yet Scots Labour MPs helped Blair win the Commons top-up fees battle when English MPs were against it.
English MPs voted against foundation hospitals but Blair won with the backing of Scots MPs, even though the Scots Labour party and Scots Parliament OPPOSED them.
It is not the political issues so much as the principle. Why should Scottish MPs UNELECTED by English people be able to run England when English MPs cannot run Scotland?
And as Blair's authority ebbs away he will become ever more dependent on Scottish support to pass laws affecting England.
The unfairness is overwhelming.
All Scottish MPs at Westminster can vote on every issue that affects England. But Westminster has hardly any say over Scotland. Scottish MPs can be ministers in London, handing out orders to the English which have no effect on their own constituents. And the Labour Government is stuffed with Scots, from Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to John Reid and their stooge "Gorbals" Mick Martin, Speaker of the Commons.
Gordon Broon subjects English pensioners to means-testing yet his Dunfermline constituents escape it.
Unlike English OAPs, elderly Scots are not forced to sell their family homes to pay for care.
Since the Scots voted for devolution in 1997 they have taken over running nearly all their affairs. But they are quite happy for England to continue to pick up the bills. I say it's time for Scotland to go the whole hog. Let's treble the height of Hadrian's Wall to form a proper border, and let Scotland and England be independent nations. The Scots can raise their own taxes to pay their way in the world.
There's still a bit of oil left in the North Sea to keep them going. And when that runs out, they can flog some more kilts to the Americans or use their empty oil tankers to ship some water down to the parched farms of Kent and Essex.
As for the Welsh, let them have a crack at self-government too. If they run short of fuel, all they have to do is sit Neil Kinnock in front of a wind turbine and he'll generate enough electricity to light the valleys for a thousand years.
Why shouldn't England be allowed to get excited about itself as an independent nation?
When the Scots and the Welsh and the Northern Irish fly their flag, it is seen as good old-fashioned love of country.
But raise the English flag of St George in your garden and there is an uneasy sense that people may think you are some rabid nutter.
Nationalism, which means quite simply the love of your own nation, has been allowed to become a tainted word.
Come the World Cup the English flag will be flying high.
Let's keep it that way when the footie's over.
It's time England had a new Parliament - for the English.
thesun.co.uk
