TV debate farce is an undemocratic disgrace

There is a lot of anger about this on Twitter and other social networking sites. No wonder, it is an undemocratic disgrace that the political views of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall can be completely and utterly ignored.

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT MOTION SALUTES MEBYON KERNOW SUCCESS

An SNP member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) has proposed a motion in the Scottish Parliament congratulating Mebyon Kernow, the Party for Cornwall on their election result in the local authority elections.

Kenneth Gibson, a member of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) representing the constituency of Cunninghame North, introduced the motion on the 9th July 2009.

The motion also supports MK's call for the establishment of a Cornish Assembly.

The full text of the motion can be found below.

S3M-04321 Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (Scottish National Party):

Mebyon Kernow, The Party for Cornwall

"That the Parliament congratulates Mebyon Kernow (MK), the Party for Cornwall, on winning three seats in the 4 June 2009 local authority elections, three more than the Labour party; considers Cornwall to be a unique and historic nation with its own culture, traditions and Celtic language, Kernowek, now undergoing a revival; considers that MK is a progressive party campaigning for greater Cornish self-government and a just, fair, sustainable, prosperous, more confident, inclusive and outward-looking Cornwall; supports MK's call for the establishment of a Cornish assembly, and wishes it every success in fighting for a better deal for all the people of Cornwall."

MEBYON KERNOW OUTPOLL LABOUR IN CORNWALL

Mebyon Kernow polls 7% in Cornwall and pushes the Labour Party into sixth place

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall has achieved its best-ever ‘national’ election result in the elections to the European Parliament. MK polled 11,534 votes (7% of the total) in the Cornwall part of the South West Euro-constituency, pushing the Labour Party into sixth place in the Duchy.

In many places in Mid and West Cornwall, MK was polling over 10%. When votes from the Isles of Scilly, Gibraltar and throughout the massive South West seat (including Bristol, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire) were added in, the MK total finished at 14,922.
Party Leader Cllr Dick Cole, who has just been elected onto Cornwall Council, described the result as a fantastic one for MK. He said: “Achieving 7% of the vote in Cornwall and out-polling the Labour Party is a truly fantastic result for Mebyon Kernow and we would like to thank the thousands of people who voted for the Party for Cornwall.

“MK fully accepts that the odds were heavily stacked against us in this contest. But we are a party of principle and we stood in this election because we wanted to give local people the opportunity to vote for Cornwall.

“We are even more pleased with the result given that we were denied fair access to television broadcasts and there was a general lack of election coverage in the local press in Cornwall.”
In order to be allowed party election broadcasts, MK would have had to stand candidates in nine regions. Due to this unfair arrangement, MK were denied media coverage, though many minor parties including the BNP, Christian Party, the Jury Team, Libertas, No2EU and Socialist Labour were allowed coverage.

The Green Party and UKIP were both allowed two European election broadcasts, as well as one each for the local elections. MK had more local election candidates than the Greens and UKIP but were not allowed coverage because we do not stand outside of Cornwall.

At the same time, there was very little coverage of the European election in local newspapers and MK had little opportunity to feature on reports on local television.

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall can also confirm that it will be making representations to recover the £5,000 deposit that it was forced to pay to stand in the Euro-elections.

Cllr Dick Cole added:

“Parties polling over 2.5% of the vote automatically get the deposit back. As a Cornish Party, we only campaigned in Cornwall and polled 7% of the votes cast in Cornwall, though in the massive South West seat this equates to 1% of the overall poll.

“We are a unique party and it is hardly our fault that we have to stand in a massive constituency of which Cornwall makes up only 10%.

“As we only distributed literature within Cornwall, we believe that there is a strong moral case for the money to be returned to MK to support our ongoing campaigns for a better deal for the people of Cornwall.”

The main results of the European Election in Cornwall was as follows:

Conservative Party 46,589
UKIP 39,954
Liberal Democrats 29,436
Green Party 13,361
Mebyon Kernow 11,534
Labour Party 8,483

Brainwashed by Britain? Labour's plans for 2012 Olympics

Here is what one Labour think-tank has to say about 2012 (thanks to Ray Bell for this - JOE)

Quote:

"Sport is one of the most powerful tools available to policy makers seeking to entrench the best of British identity. In its elite and mass forms, it reaches into the lives of many millions of people. In the run-up to the 2012 Games, with their focus on children, children are going to be increasingly involved with sporting activity that is explicitly British rather than English, Scottish or Welsh."

Opinion Leader Forum Report, It's the Taking Part that Counts, Opinion Leader Forum 2007, p23

Dear Wendy, what happened to the Claim of Right?

(sent through Wendy's blog)

Dear Ms Alexander,

Does your party still support the Claim of Right for Scotland? Gordon Brown and his followers appear to think power resides with the UK parliament, not the Scottish people (see below for the proof of that statement).

That was always the view of the Conservatives and that was why they acted the way they did while in office. Yet Labour along with the Liberal Democrats signed the Claim of Right and also demanded control of Scottish broadcasting from London.

Now it appears that your own leader thinks Scotland's views can be ignored:

Put that if Alex Salmond took Wendy Alexander's advice and held a referendum on independence, it would take place before the Calman Commission reported, the PMS said that for there to be a legally binding referendum, it would require legislation in the UK Parliament.

Asked if the PMS was suggesting that the Prime Minister would seek to block an early referendum after saying that any binding referendum would need legislation in the UK Parliament, the PMS replied that he was not suggesting anything; he was setting out a factual position.

My organisation, Independence First wrote to the last Scottish Executive and British Government seeking their views, what returned was illuminating and alarming.

The Scottish Parliament replied: “The Scotland Act 1998 sets out the statutory framework for the Scottish devolution settlement. Schedule 5 to the Act defines matters which are reserved to the United Kingdom Parliament.”

“The devolution settlement and constitutional matters generally are reserved matters under the Act. The Government of the United Kingdom is responsible therefore for considering any fundamental changes to the existing devolution framework in Scotland.”

The Scottish Office in London replied “It is worth noting that in the UK political system the UK parliament is sovereign and it is for Parliament to decide whether or not to hold a referendum on any particular issue - and what the terms of any referendum should be.”

http://www.independence1st.com/comment/not_acceptable.shtml

Yours sincerely,

Joe Middleton