With a shrug of the shoulders, England is becoming a nation once again

Tim Hedges

Why on earth would we want to revisit the issue of BST/GMT? Just as Conservatives try to roll back the nanny state, it is idiotic that the State should tell people what time it is! Let them decide for themselves.

Sir Graphus

They started it!

I remember trotting up to work in Aberdeen in 1993, a naive young Briton. Despite my Scottish surname and Glaswegian grandfather, it was quickly made abundantly & aggressively clear that I was, in fact, English, and thus carried personal responsibility for any deviation that the wonderful land of Scotland showed from Utopia.

In the last 15 years, it has increasingly come to English attention that the Celts really don't like us, and thus we've sighed a collective "well sod you, then", and taken more of an interest in our own identity which has been quite deliberately suppressed for a long time.

Kittler

Never thought of Britain or Great Britain as a country or nation. Just geography surely, the largest island in an archipelago called the British Isles. Besides, why would anyone in these isles wish bear the name bestowed on a servile province by their Italian conquers.

Wyrdtimes

It's one thing saying "English" or "England" but the terms remain meaningless until we have our English parliament back.

Every day between now and then the people of England will have to put up with UK politicians, who put the UK first deciding what's best for the English.

This means students will pay higher fees, everyone in England will continue to pay higher prescription fees, English old folks will have to pay for care that's free in Scotland and face having to sell their homes if they need to go into residential care. English woodland will be sold to contribute to UK debts - with no doubt more English assets to follow. Road and bridge tolls. Eye tests. Dental check-ups. The list goes on and grows every day.

The people of England get a raw deal because they are English and England has no parliament. Despite pretty much inventing parliament England is one of the only nations without one.

Correction. England is not a nation.

But it should be - and the place to start is with the Campaign for an English Parliament. To make sure England has a voice and a future.

ian wiseman

The ball is rolling in one direction it's just a question of how long it will take .The sooner we become seperate nations again and self funding the better!!!(then see how much the Scots and welsh like it ,having to pay thier own bills.As for Northern Ireland give it to the South then we can all get on with being what we were meant to be.

blink

The previous two Labour prime ministers and last four Labour leaders were Scottish - Tony Blair (Scottish), Gordon Brown (Scottish), John Smith (Scottish) and Neil Kinnock (Scottish), New Labour is rammed with Scots. Scotland is such a safe Labour seat that other parties often don't bother putting up candidates. Scotland voted Labour this year even as Labour lost by a landslide to the Conservatives in England. In England, Labour does better in inner cities and other areas of economic migration.

Does the Conservative/Labour divide in Britain reflect the Celtic/Anglosaxon divide?

Home Rule for England

This failure to say England is rampant throughout the media and politics. Listen to any debate in the House of Commons and there is a good chance that they will be talking about English matters. Health, education, local government to name a few are all devolved matters dealt with by the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly in thos countries. The UK Parliament deals solely with English health etc. Yet do MPs say England? No they say such misleading things as 'schools in this country'. I've been shouting at the tv and the radio for years Matthew. 'What country would that be' I ask. I've written to government ministers, the speaker of the House of Commons, MP's etc etc. but nothing changes.
Independence is coming!
Home Rule for England!

DougtheDug

Matthew, welcome to the world Scots have been inhabiting for years where there has always been uncertainty about which country is actually being referred to by the media and the Government, England or the UK. If there's talk of the weather being bad in the, "North-East", or discussion of some new education measure or a new law the automatic Scottish reaction is, "Do they mean us?", because very often they don't but it is never made clear which country is actually being refered to by the speaker or article.

You don't quite get the British/English confusion which annoys Scots. For years we have complained that, "England", has been used when the term should have been, "Britain", but now it seems to have swapped round completely where, "Britain", is used instead of, "England", to refer to matters which are specific to England only. It's not that we want you to use Britain instead of England or England instead of Britain it is just that you use the two distinct terms correctly.

"All we’re doing now is dropping the respectful deference we used to show to the smaller bits of our nation..."

When you use, "nation", here are you referring to Britain or England?

William Gruff

Sir Graphus: Yes indeed, as many English people who have worked north of the border will agree.

DougtheDug: We understand perfectly what annoys Scots, it's anything English and any mention of England, and where once we were inclined to indulge you in your sometimes violent Anglophobia we are no longer prepared to tolerate it.

Here's to independence for England.

john hardy

I really hope the Scots lead the way in dumping the Windsors. They (and the Aussies)can show the rest of us subjects the way to a republican future. Then maybe the English will finally get the message.

Graham Asher

Kittler, in fact the name 'Britain' wasn't invented or 'bestowed' by the Romans. It is much older than that, and probably comes from the name of a tribe, the Pritani or Qritani. The name 'Great Britain' was carefully chosen in 1707 to avoid offending either the English or the Scots. The 'Great' was needed to distinguish it from Brittany, commonly called Little Britain. I agree that if the Scots now reject 'Britain' and 'British' there is no point in carrying on with these names.

D Short

We may no longer have a government overstuffed with Scots, but we still have a Spectator with a Scottish chief executive and Scottish owners.

L. Grounds

would you write about an organisation being "stuffed" with Jewish people or Pakistanis?

Or is it just Scots that raise your ire.