A CLASSIC example of the arrogance of New Labour came the other day. On a topic of huge importance, its assumption that the Government knows our minds better than we do demonstrates that Tony Blair and his circle have learned nothing from the collapse of New Labour's vote since the landslide of 1997.
The source of the arrogance was Lord Faulkner - plain Mr Charles Faulkner until his mate Tony Blair elevated him (presumably without a £1m bribe, so that's OK, isn't it?). As Lord Chancellor he rejected out of hand the notion of an English Parliament to resolve the so-called 'West Lothian question' - the indefensible system that allows MPs for Scottish and Welsh constituencies to vote on matters which, post-devolution, affect only England. Their votes today might be crucial in pushing through the Government's Education Bill, opposed by many Labour supporters.
Lord Falconer insisted there was "no demand'' for an English Parliament. In terms of a current public clamour he is right. But that's because the issue isn't yet fully on the public radar. You and I might still be willing to bet that if the people were asked tomorrow whether or not England should have its own Parliament, Lord Falconer would be proved dramatically wrong.
Never mind. By some clever thought process that, I regret to say, left me trailing, the Lord Chancellor argued that, while devolving powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was compatible with the concept of the United Kingdom, doing the same for England would spell the end of the Union. To my puny brain, how one nail in the coffin differed from another remained unclear.
Incidentally - and please forgive this detour - 'Great Britain' has just about vanished with 'England'. No doubt mirroring EU preference, we are now nearly always 'the UK'. Sad, don't you think?
Anyway, Darlington MP Alan Milburn recently gave a strong hint of how the Government might approach the West Lothian question.
He told the BBC's Today programme that if there was a "democratic deficit'' the answer would be elected regional assemblies. Those bogeys again. Though Mr Milburn didn't say so, New Labour's intention might be to promote the unwanted assemblies on the back of mounting discontent with the Cinderella status of England. "If you want parity with the Scots/Welsh/Northern Irish, back an elected assembly.''
But regional assemblies are bound to be inferior to devolved Parliaments. England never could be allowed to become a mosaic of different education and social systems. The tax complications alone would rule it out.
We should be on the alert for the Government adopting this tactic - of which, indeed, Mr Milburn's remarks might be the first evidence. Even against contrary reasoning less mystifying than Lord Faulkner's, the case for England having equal powers to the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish is unanswerable. It is unshakeably founded on something called fairness. To secure it we need to rediscover the spirit of St George, and put the likes of Lord Falconer to the sword.
LATE in the day Jerry Hall has added baking to sex appeal. "Men love it when you bake a pie for them," she says. It's been my great fortune to have had a wife, well endowed in the looks department, who knew that from our wedding day.
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