You don’t understand us, do you, Gordon?

Lee Jakeman

It was a good article. But brilliant? As far as I could see, it merely restates what parties like the English Democrats have been saying for years - that the people of England are without proper representation. I listen to the idiots in all three major parties repeatedly reject calls for an English parliament within a federal UK. All they can say is "but that would destroy the union!". Of course it would! That's the whole point - a FEDERATION (= decentralised) is not a UNION (= centralised). A federation can easily accommodate devolution - a union CAN'T by definition. That's what's wrong with the EU, too. It is NOT a federation, but a UNION. Unionism is dead. The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia have all gone. Belgium is on the verge of splitting. And in England, there is resistance to both the European Union and the British Union. Yet all three major parties still cling to the "Union" like it was a sacred cow. Notice that the Swiss, Australians and Americans, who all have federal structures, don't have these same problems.