Veronica Newman of the Campaign for an English Parliament suggests size is no impediment to the case for an English Parliament.

Veronica Newman of the Campaign for an English Parliament had an excellent letter in the Western Daily Press on April 29th.  It was a rebuttal of a previous correspondent’s claim that due to the size and population of England an English Parliament would lead to an unstable United Kingdom.  The letter contains pertinent and illuminating facts about some of the states making up the federal systems of other major nations.

Below is Veronica Newman’s letter as published in the Western Daily Press.

Size not important in democracy fight.

In his letter of April 21, Robert Craig asserts that there will never be an English Parliament as England would need to become independent from the UK and due to the size of England’s population a federation would be unstable.

I would like to draw Robert Craig’s attention to some countries which currently have federal systems that function perfectly well even with states of very different sized populations:

USA – Largest state California population 39,250,017, smallest state Alaska population 739,828

Canada – Largest state Ontario population 13,448,494, smallest state Yukon population 35,874

Germany – Largest state North-Rhine Westphalia population 17,904,65, smallest state Saarland population 1,027,700

I venture to suggest that size does not matter in the case of a parliament for England, in a federation it would be unable to dictate to the other states and there is no prerequisite for independence.

Veronica Newman
The Campaign for an English Parliament
Trowbridge, Wiltshire

As a further example I would add Australia to Veronica Newman’s list.  Of its six States, New South Wales has the largest population at 7,757,800, which is 32% of the nation’s population while Tasmania, the smallest, has a population of 519,800 making up only 2% of the total.