Ex-Welsh Secretary claims EU wants to ‘break up England’ while keeping Wales ‘whole’
A former Secretary of State for Wales has claimed that the EU wants to “break up” England while keeping Welsh devolution “whole”.
John Redwood, the Tory MP for Wokingham in Berkshire, hit out at the idea of regional devolution for England in response to comments by the Archbishop of York, who wants a “more developed and strengthened regional government within” the country.
Writing in the Telegraph, Stephen Cottrell said many people in England feel left behind by “metropolitan elites in London and the South East”, are “patronised as backwardly xenophobic”, and he called for “an expansive vision of what it means to be English”.
In his article, the Archbishop also called for Wales to sing God Save the Queen before international sports games.
He suggested that when the different nations of the UK play each other in sporting contests that they “belt out our individual anthems” before they “sing our national anthem together”.
In response to the article Redwood accused the Church of England of adopting “fashionable global and EU tropes” and claimed that it has “taken the Anglican Church long soaked in the views of the international elite an age to discover the cause of England”.
He wrote on his blog: “Despite carrying our country’s name in its own the C of E has regularly adopted fashionable global and EU tropes that are unwelcome to many in a doughty independent island country with global reach and ambition.
“The Archbishop is by inference attacking the Lambeth Palace and Brussels oriented views of recent Archbishops of Canterbury by remembering his own Northern roots.”
‘Lacks understanding’
“He then reveals he too lacks understanding of how Englishmen and women feel by recommending we get another dose of regional devolution within England.
“So like the EU elite he wants to break up and balkanise England whilst leaving Scottish and Welsh devolution whole at the country level.
“The whole point about the English case is we wish to have for England some of the same devolved rights that Scotland enjoys.
“I proposed to David Cameron that we gave England EVEN, English votes for English needs, in the Commons.
“Instead of setting up a costly new English Parliament with extra MPs and a new building, why not let UK MPs elected to Westminster carry the dual mandate and meet as a Grand Committee at Westminster for any legislation or budgetary review matters that would mirror those powers devolved to Scotland or Wales.
“Mr Cameron on advice from Mr Hague watered that down to an English veto on English laws, with no right to initiate an English proposal for English MPs. Now Mr Gove has removed even that.
“Meanwhile we need a BBC that gives equal billing to England as to Scotland. Why is there no BBC England?
“We need an anthem for English teams that we know and want to sing, and a better and more sympathetic presentation of English history, literature and culture by English and UK institutions.”
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Redwood speaks ! We shake our heads in wonder as we try to understand how the voters of Wokingham elect this specimen
The solution is simple Redwood, – English independence! That way you can keep your country ‘whole’ and have as much ‘sovereignty’ as you can hold!
Does anyone else get the feeling that many of these older Tory politicians would actually be decent public servants if England were an independent state? OK, maybe not all of them… but some seem to blurt out things that, in the case of a separate English state, would be on the right track. In a UK context, however, their rhetoric and their actions are disastrous. I’ve said it often – David Davies could be a great politician for the people of Sir Fynwy in an independent Wales (not the sort of politician I’d vote for, but I see the appeal).… Read more »
His rhetoric is quite inflammatory though, his country he is talking about is England, but he also thinks it is an island.
If the whole of England was like Wokingham, maybe.
Yes, that’d be a weird-looking country.
“Does anyone else get the feeling that many of these older Tory politicians would actually be decent…?”
No, I’ve never had that impression about Redwood
An English sporting anthem? They already have one.
Granted it was written by a nutter from the wrong side of Loughor Bridge but it is perfect for them.
Pathetic little man
The United Kingdom is not normal. Part Monty Python. Part Biggles. Part Billy Bunter.
Also, part Jack the Ripper!
Yet another London centric tvrd bobs up onto the surface. Sooner he sinks back into the depths of the pond the better for all of us.
Give us a song, John!
You remember his goldfish impersonation when miming along to Hen Wlad fy Nhadau?
Available on youtube. Lest we forget.
That, plus the 2016 win over Belgium, the last try in the 33-3 win against you-know-who, and Ar Log singing ‘Y Deryn Pur’, are the YouTube vids that I’ll never tire of watching.
30-3, sorry.
Mr Drakeford could you please make it plain to the English Government that Wales is disgusted by the Home Office on every level…
It’s your fellow Brit politicians like Boredom Brown who want to break up England, otherwise how else would their vaunted ‘federalism’ work?
Tweedle Dum refers to England as an “Island country” despite it being about 60% of the landmass of this island. Tweedle Dee, should just stick to his Bronze Age myths and transvestitism, and he can shove his turgid anthem up his vestments.
England is not an island, it shares one with other nations. Cymru am byth 🏴
Redwood will blame the EU for everything. England can remain whole but still feel the benefits of devolution – i.e. power to the local community. He doesn’t understand that that’s what devolution means. He is the very elite he accuses the CofE of being, it wants total control. Wales and Scotland need to attain independence quickly and leave England to fight its own internal struggle.
Agreed, but England’s “internal battle” was over long ago….. They’ve reverted to type…. i.e endless Tory rule and endless right wing nutter opposition.
“I ate them EU’s to pieces, hear me doncha I ate ’em ate ’em ate ’em”……..
.”come on Mr R. Time for for beddy bo byes and your glass of milk, with just a touch of….
England, Mr Redwood, is not an island, no matter how much you wish it was.
The English already have a devolved government
It is called Westminster
No one in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland is stopping the English from having their own devolved government, that is something for the English to decide for themselves. They can’t blame the devolved nations if they can’t agree amongst themselves what they want for their own country. There are far more English MPs, than from the other nations, so if they sort out what form of devolution they want for England they could pass it in the UK Parliament. Likewise they can’t blame the EU.
It is very strange that the English are the majority in the UK yet people like John Redwood seem to think they are an oppressed minority.
Absolutely bonkers these people…
If they really wanted an English Parliament, it needn’t be costly or need a new building if they closed down the House of Lords – populated by 800+ unelected people mostly from England anyway – and used the space for 200 or so elected new MEPs (Members of an English Parliament)