The Spectator

Battle for England

As we celebrate St George’s Day, it is worth asking just what England has done to deserve being landed in such a mess.

issue 24 April 2010

As we celebrate St George’s Day, it is worth asking just what England has done to deserve being landed in such a mess. She certainly did not vote for it. In the last election, the Conservatives won the most English votes. And no one, aside from 24,500 Fifers, has ever crossed a box beside Gordon Brown’s name. Yet the Labour Prime Minister has had a free rein to trample all over England’s economy. The voting system, many conclude, is a joke. So why not throw the mother of all spanners into the works — and vote Lib Dem?

The English have a long record of defying authority that they do not respect. So many people declared themselves ‘Jedis’ in the last official census that it is now on record as the nation’s fourth largest religion. A man in a money suit was elected Mayor of Hartlepool. During this election campaign, there is a similar appetite for blowing a raspberry at the whole process.

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