English Democrats: there may be trouble ahead........

Later this month the English Democrats meet for their annual conference. They should be in good heart as two of their major policies have entered mainstream political thinking.

Leave the EU:  Opposition to membership of the European Union is growing with  60% of Tory party members wanting out and the formation of a group of Conservative MPs opposed to membership of the EU in its current form or indeed, in the case of some of them, to EU membership in its entirety. 


Creation of an English Parliament:  This is the main policy of the ED. The decision of the UK government to set up a commission to consider the West Lothian Question, together with the electoral success of the SNP  and the decision of Plaid Cymru to explicity state it is a party promoting independence for Wales, are all pointers to an eventual recasting of the UK's constitutional arrangements.

However the conference mood could be grim.

The ED is beset with problems.  A perusal of the accounts shows the party is over £200,000 in debt. The money has been loaned to the party by, it is believed , two members under an agreement whereby the money will only be repaid when the party has assets to enable it to do so.  It takes only a moments thought to realise how unsatisfactory this state of affairs is. Not only does it give the loan makers huge leverage within the party but it will be a disincentive to any new sponsors unless they receive legally binding assurances that their money will not be used to pay off the loans.

Currently, members of the party are engaged in a divisive debate concerning ex-BNP members seeking to join the party. The discussion has descended into farce as arguments rage about the process by which people join the party and the powers of the National Council.  An influx of ex-BNP members will taint the ED.  An ominous sign has been the publication on a blog dedicated to English nationalism of an article claiming that the test of English  nationality is one of biology, namely  being white.  The blog is closely associated with Steve Uncles (he denies ownership), a 'leading' figure within the ED.   The ED policy is based on civic nationality and not ethnic nationality but for how long with ex-BNP members in the party and a blog promoting an article which is blatantly racist?

A further cause of contention within the party has been an e-mail sent by Mr Uncles to Sinn Fein which led to his resigning from the ED National Council.  The blog referred to above claims that English nationalism is:

not compatible with Scottish or Northern Irish Unionism, indeed modern Democratic English Nationalists, support a United Ireland, to end the subsidy from the English Tax Payer to Northern Ireland.

The ED has a loose cannon in its midst and it needs throwing overboard.  However Mr Uncles is claiming that no matter what the result of the party's SE area elections he might still gain a place on the party's National Council as there are vacancies.

There is a plethora of English nationalist parties.  The ED is the largest, the others are very small.  Until last weekend disaffected EDs might have considered joining one of the other parties but now a new possibility has arisen.  At its conference last weekend UKIP took a major step along the road to formulating a policy supporting the establishment of an English parliament. Will this lead to moderate members of the ED deserting and seeking a new home in UKIP?  More than likely and a trickle will become a torrent once ex-BNP members begin to influence ED policy. The ED will become even less attractive to voters.  Cannot see that £200,000 being repaid.