English Independence: Where I stand

After spending some time thinking long and hard about my position on English indepdendence I've decided to finally come off the fence.

I've always been of the opinion - despite my English pride - that England was better off as part of a British state than as a separate nation. England, Scotland and Wales were stronger together than any of them apart. I still believe that to be true today, but the fact is that Scotland and Wales have become so dependent on the EU and are so far along the devolution bandwagon that any hope of them returning to the British fold has now gone. At least for now.

So I'm now declaring that I am in favour of a free and independent England.

This raises quite a few questions in my mind about what should an English nation be like, what should it look like, what should it do and how should it develop?

Over the last few days I've been checking out various web sites and political parties who advocate English independence or an English parliament to answer those questions. Unfortunately, I've found very few answers. What is apparent, however, is that there is a great deal of naivety displayed by some of these groups. For example, one site I visited declared itself in favour of an independent England - but wanted to remain in the EU!

Sorry, but England can not be independent AND in the EU. Independence means having the freedom to make your own decisions in your own interests and the EU does not allow that. What is more, this same group were suggesting that they would reinstate the death penalty - which the EU will not allow. How can they expect to be taken seriously when they can not even understand such a simple point?

So, as part of this blog, I am going to set myself a task of creating my vision of an independent England. I'll do it in a series of posts that will develop as as the blog develops. They will be personal views and opinions, but I hope some of you will like what I set out and I hope that some of you will contribute your own opinions. They will be welcome.

I should point out that I am not a member of any political party. I have links to the English Democrat Party website on my blog, but only because I like some of the stuff they have written. I confess to once having had a brief flirtation with UKIP prior to the last round of European elections, but I quickly became disillusioned with their in-fighting and, frankly, embarrasingly amateurish approach. Anyway, any similarity that may arise between my views and those of any political party is purely coincidental and does not reflect any allegiance on my part.

Here's to a free English nation!