Time for England to awake from its political slumber

THANK heavens it’s over! Or is it? Scotland votes No after someone called Gordon Brown, sulking for four years, suddenly reappears, to promise Scots more powers and maybe more English gold. Clearly this wasn’t discussed by our elected government, hence the early silence. What a democracy we live in!

Better Together has to be one of the most incompetently managed political campaigns in history. The complacency in Westminster was appalling. Remember, these are the people who govern us.

Now the scenario is worse. Will promises of more powers to Scotland be matched with more English money? What of Wales and Northern Ireland? What about us in the English North, always overlooked and treated like a scrapyard? For instance, travel per head in Yorkshire is £205, but in London is £2,731.

Through experience, I have no confidence in politicians, always at their worst when having to think and act quickly. Now the biggest change, our constitution, could be rushed through and botched in a matter of months.

However, I sense the beast is stirring – at last! Labour’s Jim Murphy said the consequence of the referendum will be “an English awakening”. I hope so.

From: JW Buckley, Aketon, Pontefract.

WHAT can we learn from the Scottish referendum? Answer: people are not satisfied with the present political system.

If Westminster cannot sort itself out, then it will become a total irrelevance. I know it’s like turkeys voting for Christmas, but this has been a wake-up call, which has visibly shaken our politicians into working together. We must keep up this momentum.

From: Brian Wride, Doncaster.

LIKE many people, I have become steadily more and more disenchanted with Westminster governments as the decades have passed. I am particularly appalled at the degree of local accountability granted to Scotland by successive Westminster governments and supported by all the major political parties, whereas England has none!

England is the only country in Great Britain that does not have a local parliament to champion/support the needs of its counties, and this must change. I do not support any increase in bureaucrats but instead envisage a movement of MPs and civil servants from Westminster to a local English parliament as power is transferred.