'Labour treats England badly - they want to break it up into regions we don't recognise,' says Sir John Redwood
Don't Miss
Most Read
Trending on GB News
The people of the UK are usually more sensible than their governments. Ten years ago after years of pressure from the SNP for independence, the Scots voted decisively to remain in the UK. 2 million voted to stay and 1.6 million to leave.
Eight years ago on a large turnout 17.4 million of us voted to leave the EU with 16.1 million wanting to remain. By these two crucial votes, the UK decided to be an independent country and a united one, with majorities of 1.3 million and 400,000.
Many of the politicians thought they knew better than the voters. The SNP fought on for independence whilst the Westminster official government kept giving Scotland more powers within the Union. The more devolution they gained, the more the SNP demanded.
Many MPs and civil servants sought to prevent Brexit. To this day they still try to keep us aligned with the institution we left, argue for us to be more subservient to Brussels laws and reject use of the many Brexit freedoms the UK has acquired but not exercised.
We have still not got rid of unwanted VAT impositions. Our method of economic control is still the EU debt and deficit austerity model.
We have kept in place many regulations that impede innovation, stifle small business and restrict our lives.
All the main UK national political parties claim to support the Union. They have an odd way of showing it. They give in to SNP demands to treat Scotland differently, whilst deliberately alienating Unionists in Northern Ireland by giving in to the EU and Republic of Ireland demands.
In both cases they let down the people in Scotland and Northern Ireland who make up the majority in each place and who back the Union.
The perversity of the governing establishment revealed itself forcefully over the EU settlement of Northern Ireland. The NI Protocol means all EU single market law still applies in Northern Ireland, partly detaching the province from the UK. The new government will probably use the hold the EU has over Northern Ireland as a brake on new UK laws and on repeals of bad EU regulations for the rest of the UK.
It was a nonsense that we had to do this to protect the small Republic to Northern Ireland trade. The settlement has done damage to the much larger and more important Great Britain to Northern Ireland trade. All we needed was to promise not to allow products that failed EU standards to pass to the Republic, which could be done without new border posts.
Instead we now have prohibitions on sending goods from one part of our country to another against the wishes of all Unionists and Brexiteers. Most politicians delighted in trampling on our referendum backed wishes in an entitled outburst of "we know best".
Labour has long believed that if you keep giving all but England more devolved powers you will keep the Union together.
They treat England badly, wanting to break it up into regions we do not recognise or are not loyal to. Liverpool doesn't want to be governed as part of the North West from Manchester. Exeter does not look to Bristol for authority. I do not feel I belong to the South east excluding London or to the Thames Valley. I am English.
MORE FROM GBN MEMBERSHIP:
Their policy of appeasement of nationalism in Scotland gave the SNP a great platform for the longest angry complaint in UK history without ever persuading a majority to back independence.
In Wales, devolution won by just 7000 votes on a 50 per cent turnout. Devolved government there has delivered slower growth and worse public services than England at greater cost.
Where are the promised gains? Why do so many politicians want to force more bad government on made up and unpopular English regions?
The Union of the UK is stronger than the politicians think. The belief in an independent UK has survived the attempts of most political parties to thwart it.
Thank heavens for the referendums. Let's have one now on the net zero policy.