Westminster Home Rule for England

Boris Johnson addressed the nation last night to outline the slight relaxation of the lockdown rules but it was left to the First Minister of Wales to tell English people that the announcement only applies to England.

The new rules mean people in England can travel wherever they want for exercise and relaxation as long as they maintain social distancing with effect from Wednesday. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments chose not to follow the British government’s rule changes for England and the restrictions on movement still apply there.

There is an unwritten rule in Westminster that England must not be named. The racist devolution system that excludes England and the British establishment’s tenuous grip on political power in England relies on the institutional discrimination not becoming a topic of conversation in England. That means that when Boris talks about lockdown rules in England he talks about the country. When Ministers go on TV and radio to talk about the lockdown rules in England they talk about the country. When people listen to them talking about the lockdown rules in the country they don’t hear England.

So because Boris et al don’t explain that they only speak for England the First Minister of Wales was forced to do it for them this morning with a message to English people telling them that Wales is still locked down and to stay away. That’s right, the First Minster of Wales had to tell the people of England that the British prime minister only makes the rules for England.

An English Parliament with an English First Minister taking charge of England’s response to the Coronavirus would have ensured there was no confusion as to who the new rules applied to. And when this pandemic is over and done with it would ensure there was no confusion as to which country they were talking about when politicians were talking about transport, fishing, environment, farming, forestry, education, health, social care, housing, planning, local government, sport, culture and tax.

Big Brother

The British government have launched a contact tracking mobile phone app on the Isle of Wight to help identify contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Which is great … except it isn’t.

Google and Apple are both rolling out changes to their Android and iOS operating systems to enable contact tracking. Their system records contacts via bluetooth and those contacts are stored on your own device. Data doesn’t get transferred to a central database.

The NHS app tracks your contacts and uploads them to a central database when you confirm you have tested positive. The central system behind that database will work out who you’ve been in contact with and notify you. The state then has a big database containing comprehensive data on the movement and associations of millions of people.

Most countries building contact tracing apps are using Google and Apple’s decentralised contact tracing technology that doesn’t involve building tracking databases. The fact that the British government chose to build a big database when one wasn’t needed speaks volumes.

A lot of money has been invested in this tracking app and it will be installed by millions of people who are being told that it will “protect the NHS and save lives”. Once the current pandemic is finished the technology isn’t going to be abandoned, it’ll be expanded and used for other things. It’s the thin end of the wedge and I will have no part of it.

Shropshire Hills

Sir Keir Starmer, the millionaire London MP chosen to lead the Labour Party, has called on the British government to ensure that nobody in England is more than 20 minutes away from a Coronavirus testing station. He didn’t say England, obviously, but that’s what he meant

I’m sure it would be fairly easy to put a testing station within 20 minutes of the average Londoner. You can get a long way on the tube in 20 minutes but London is just 607 out of 50,360mi2 of England, 92% of which is undeveloped.

So how would the MP for Holborn & St Pancras’ 20 minute plan work here in Shropshire where about 80% of the county is farmland, forest, open spaces or water?

Shropshire has two main towns next to each other – Telford and Shrewsbury – connected by a motorway and dual carriageway. It takes about 20 minutes to get between the two. It takes 20 minutes to drive from Ironbridge in south Telford to Bratton in north Telford and most of that journey is by dual carriageway and A roads. Getting from the border village of Priest Weston to the nearest town of Church Stretton will take over half an hour. It is the 13th largest county in England by area but 42nd out of 48 for population. It is the 6th most sparsely populated county in England. It would take hundreds, if not thousands, of testing stations to ensure that even people living in our large towns are within 20 minutes of one let alone the people who live in such remote locations that it takes them 10 minutes to get to a road. And if you need to use public transport then for most of the county you’re out of luck.

This kind of statement shows what is wrong with British politics. The leader of the Conservatives, the Labour Party and the Lib Dems are all MPs for constituencies in London and London is not England. London isn’t even an English city any more, its culture and values are entirely out of step with the rest of the country. The British Parliament is dominated by London and the south east of England whose MPs think that if something is right for their corner of the country it’s right for the rest of England and more often than not it isn’t.

The centre of political power in England needs to be moved right out of London and the south east and well away from metropolitan areas. England needs a parliament of its own, be it devolved from the British Parliament or independent. This parliament should be somewhere more representative of the majority of the country and I would (obviously) suggest Shropshire.

The first English Parliament involving commoners was held at Acton Burnell near Shrewsbury in 1283. Shropshire is the birthplace of the modern Olympics, the industrial revolution and the skyscraper and has given the world some of its greatest minds such as Charles Darwin, Dr William Penny Brookes, Clive of India, Abraham Darby, A E Houseman, Wilfred Owen and Roger de Montgomery. But most importantly, it would remind politicians that the bustling city life, 24 hour economy, world class public transport system and melting pot of different races, religions and cultures that they experience in London is alien to most of the country.

It would also help them to understand why saying that nobody should be more than 20 minutes from a Coronavirus testing station is little more than wishful thinking outside of the London bubble.

Asda soap empty shelf

Panic buying because of the Coronavirus has become such a problem that supermarkets have had to introduce rationing. Shelves are being stripped bare of paracetamol. soap, hand sanitiser, bleach, household cleaners, toilet rolls, bottled water, pasta, rice and tinned food.

What these muppets have neglected to consider is what everyone who hasn’t panic bought 2 years’ worth of bleach and soap is going to do to stop themselves spreading the virus to those who have.

Herd Immunity

You see, we’re all relying on everyone else to do their bit to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. People are panic buying soap and bleach and tissues because the experts are telling us to wash our hands regularly, clean hard surfaces regularly and to sneeze into a tissue and throw it away (the fact they have to tell people this in the first place is a bit worrying). This stops the virus being spread around the population because everyone is doing their bit to kill it off. It’s called herd immunity and it’s why we vaccinate against preventable diseases.

If people can’t wash their hands regularly because they can’t buy soap, can’t clean hard surfaces regularly because they can’t buy bleach and can’t sneeze into a tissue because some people think they need half a deciduous forest in their bathroom it’s going to spread even faster and no amount of hand washing, bleaching and blowing your nose is going to stop you getting it.

Catch it. Bin it. Kill it.

Only about 1% of people with Coronavirus symptoms who have been tested in England actually had the virus. It’s infectious but you are still less likely to get it even if you come in contact with someone who has it than you are to be infected. This panic buying is not just unnecessary, it’s actually increasing your risk of catching the virus. So do yourself and the rest of the population a favour and stop the idiocy.

Is this really necessary? Cleaning products, toilet rolls, bleach, paracetamol, bottled water, pasta, rice … cleaned out at my local Asda and I’ve seen on social media that other supermarkets are in a similar state. Do people not wipe their noses or clean their houses usually?

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Dear Telford, get a grip.

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