There can be little doubt now that the Labour Party, first under Blair, then Brown and now Miliband, are bent on eradicating England as a national entity in her own right! Yes, England, one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) nations in the world, has the British Labour Party and Scotland as its enemies.
(There is a Scottish Labour Party and Welsh Labour Party but no English Labour Party, Scottish TUC and Wales TUC but no English TUC. The Conservative and Liberal Democrats parties are similarly structured. NONE of them acknowledge England and the English.)
Ed Miliband
Will he really represent England’s interests. the interests of the great majority?
In his recent speech in Birmingham as the Labour Party leader, Miliband announced that “Cities and towns that come together with local businesses will be given historic new powers over transport, housing, skills and economic development.” However, we should not be deceived by Miliband’s apparent frankness; he omitted to mention that he would be singling out England’s cities and towns. After all, transport and housing are matters which the previous government (which he was much involved in) devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for THEIR respective assemblies to control. So much for Ed Miliband’s openness and honesty!
Just consider the implications of the autocratic utterance “historic new powers”. On the surface, it seems so benign and harmless but, if is intended to be significantly effective, it will entail the provision of significant additional public funding, for real power is finance, plus the ability to effect radical administrative change. Even so, Miliband made no commitment to consult the people of England and it is reasonable to assume that, consistent with previous conduct, a British politician will be assuming he can inflict what HE decides upon England’s cities and towns!
Unlike voters in Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland, voters in England will not be afforded the opportunity to decide as a nation whether WE want Miliband’s remedies for the problems which beset us.
If the Labour Party and Miliband had any decency, any sense of fairness, they would give voters in England a referendum on whether we should have our own separate parliament, together with its own executive and bill drafting facilities, arrangements which Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland have been operating, since 1998 in the case of Scotland and Wales.
THE TEXT OF MILIBAND’S BIRMINGHAM SPEECH CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://press.labour.org.uk/post/82080311502/ed-milibands-speech-on-tackling-the-cost-of-living
South West England - English Democrats 
What’s wrong with localisation/regionalisation of power within the UK? Surely anything that reduces the over-centralisation of power in Westminster would be beneficial for the liberty and resilience of the social and cultural values of the peoples of Britian? The British Isles did pretty well for thousands of years prior to annexation into the Roman Empire (43 AD), and subseqently through the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (500-850) before the establishment of the Kingdom of England in the 10th century subsequent Norman invasion (1066). From that point, the regions suffered for the benefit of the central “Power Elite”, this was amply demostrated early on by the Harrying of the North (1069-1070) and which is, in my opinion, clearly still visible today in the North-South divide.
By the way, it happens that Scotland was unified a century earlier than England! This should be eye-opening:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_date_of_formation#Sortable_list
Care to say what you regard as your national identity?
I don’t really stongly feel I have one to be honest. I realise that possibly disqualifies my opinion by some measure, however my ancestry has been traced back to the early 16th c. and I feel a strong connection with those individuals, most of which so happen to have been Londoners or from the home counties with the odd immigré (Dutch and possibly Spanish). I care about the history through which they lived, and their ancestors in turn, and indeed the shared history which brought myself and my Dutch wife* into being.
(* who considers herself Zeews, when I just asked her the same question! )
I assume that you might be able to distinguish between your chosen national identity and your ancestry. On this basis, I ask you once again Steve: would you care to say what YOU regard as your national identity?
Call me romantic, but I’d really like to see devolution approximating the borders of the aforementioned Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. There were good historical and geographic reasons those regions came to be homogenious, and into the future as we see a decilne in available energy and resources, the center can not hold anyway. As I said, we need to be adaptable and reslient, that means making the right descisions locally and regionally.
Would it be too much to expect that England’s local government arrangements should be decided by an English Parliament?
In principle, no. Certainly, I agree it’s completely unfair for the other members of the Union to have their needs represented while the English are dominated by the interests of Westminster. Of course that’s why I also feel it would be unfair for those of the regions to be ruled from London. Otherwise, there’s not much difference, is there?
In my opinion, local government arrangements for England are best dealt with by an English Parliament which does not include (as the British Parliament does) representatives from the rest of the UK!
The Brit parties’ focus on regions is a device to divert attention from an English Parliament and to foster divisions at the same time!