English Democrats

There's something wrong when you ask Garry Bushell to support your cause. The great absence of talent is there on the homepage of the English Democrats, declaring his support for a parliament for England with all the wit and style he's never been noted for. The English Democrats, formed in 2002 in response to Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish devolution, may as well quit and go home now. As Danny Baker once had it, you should never hide your light under a Garry Bushell. 



NOT A CASH COW

"England has been buried under a 'British' identity by the three main political parties," the English Democrats say. "England is not a disparate collection of Euro-regions, nor is it a cash cow for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." Got that? England will not be milked of cash. If anyone's going to milk it for coins it will. It will be a self-cash-milking cow. So there. 

A PARLIAMENT OF PARANOIA

The English Democrats declare a fervent interest in a parliament for England, but then undermine that very sensible idea by paranoid myopic ranting about political correctness, immigration, multiculturalism, the EU and marriage. It's like The Daily Mail after too many E numbers.

The English Democrats believe in a theme park nation, a never-never-(Eng)land in which history stopped in the mid 1950s. The party will have to get past its belligerent nostalgia for a mythical past, its palpable sadness at the loss of empire, and its parochial reading of history, if it is ever to make an impact.

26 April 2010