Pointless Debate 2

On Thursday I posted a piece, A Pointless Debate, on the Campaign for an English Parliament; for one comment made, “Funny I thought that the English Flag belonged to the BNP and the neo-fascists these days;”, I have been accused of being bigoted! Now, I don’t give a flying fig what people call me, except racist or bigoted, I am neither! Those who have never met me and, consequently, don’t know me should be a little more circumspect with such remarks. The remark was made with tongue firmly in cheek; however, it is very true that the Cross of St. George has been hijacked by those of the far right who would see England returned to a state where England would be for the English and no one else; I am not saying that everyone who carries the English flag is one of these right wing supporters, far from it, but this flag has become synonymous with these groups.

To expand on what I was saying; I was not saying that changes do not have to be made, what I was saying is that an ‘English Parliament’ will not happen in the way that the CEP want it. I have profound problems with the way in which this campaign is being carried out; these people have the temerity to accuse people like myself of being racist and bigoted, when actually they are no better themselves. Their campaign is predicated on anti-Scottish, anti-Welsh and anti-Northern Irish themes, more often than not going out of their way to highlight sectarianism within these nations. Of course there is, and never has been, any sectarianism in England; historically the English have been paragons of virtue in such matters, they only persecuted the Catholics and many other factions that were not the flavour of the day. There is a degree of sectarianism in any healthy society, there always has been and always will be.

I have no problem with the debate per se, however I do have immense problems with the fact that the waters of the debate are being muddied with such nationalist sectarianism/racism; if these people want an English Parliament then have the debate about that and don’t bring in all of the issues which have absolutely no bearing on the topic whatsoever; stop pointing fingers at the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish and look to your own issues. I am not a politician, neither am I an academic, I am simply an artist who is concerned with things on a day to day basis, and I have tried to take a very much unbiased look at this problem; and if that offends people well so be it, they don’t have to read what I write, nobody is twisting their arm and forcing them to. Finally I am neither Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish nor English; I am Cornish and proud of it; this might make me British but not English, in fact I might go as far as to describe myself as European; oh dear, now I have probably offended a whole different group of people!