Impressive line-up of speakers at the forthcoming Social Democratic Party conference.

The Social Democratic Party holds its annual conference in London on November 6 and appears to have lined up an excellent group of speakers.  Good to see that, among others, David Starkey is there along with Clair Fox, Rod Little and Patrick O’Flynn. 

The party leader, William Clouston will obviously be speaking – it was interesting, and noteworthy, that he was interviewed on GB News recently.  Perhaps the SDP will undergo a resurgence if such prominence is given to it on a regular basis.

As a supporter of the establishment of a dedicated English Parliament I am pleased to note that the SDP is in favour of such a policy.  It will be fascinating, and significant, if any of the speakers make any observations on the issue.

I will not be voting for any of the establishment parties again as they all appear to be singing from the same woke/PC hymn sheet these days.  Therefore, as I sympathise with practically all of the SDP’s policies I will be voting for them if ever they stand candidates, at whatever level of government, in South Somerset.

Professor Vernon Bogdanor appears to support the balkanisation of England to save the Union. A letter in The Week.

In a letter which first appeared in The Times Professor Vernon Bogdanor  appears to support the balkanisation of England as a way of saving The Union.  It seems he is among those who believe in suppressing any political entity which exclusively represents English nationhood.

I reproduce below his letter to The Times which I came across in The Week (24 October).  I find it a disappointing read from someone so distinguished.  He gives powerful ammunition to those who argue against the establishment of an English parliament in order to discourage Scottish separatism and preserve the 1707 Union.

To The Times.

John Kampfner is right to call for further decentralisation “to the localities”, but an English parliament would not achieve this.  Whether situated in Manchester, Liverpool or York, it would appear just as remote to most as Westminster which would be reduced to a debating chamber for the discussion of foreign and defence policy and macro-economic management, while the quasi-federal UK which resulted would be so dominated by England as to be unbalanced, and an encouragement to Scottish separatism.  There is no democratic federation in the world in which one of the units represents more than 80% of the population. 

The right course is to build on the combined authorities with directly elected mayors by strengthening their powers, and by devolving on a similar basis to those areas of England outside the city regions.  That entails a unitary system of local government in those areas, as recommended more than 50 years ago by the Royal Commission on Local Government, in place of the present two-tier system.  That is the path that I hope the Government will follow in its forthcoming white paper.

 

Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government, KCL