PROPOSAL FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL SETTLEMENT FOR THE BRITISH ISLES AS A WHOLE

Submitted to the Rt Hon John Bercow MP 9th June 2012

Right Honourable and Honourable Members

In 1983 I began to write a novel. In 1993 I finished writing the novel. When I began it had not been my intention to write a political novel but by the time I had finished this is what it had become. By 1993 I had written a proposal for a Constitutional Settlement for the people of the British Isles that seemed to me might be of interest and might even find favour. I therefore began to suggest the proposal to politicians and others throughout the islands. This I did in response to the bomb in Warrington that year. The response I obtained was

encouraging. To this day it remains a proposal that no British or Irish Government nor Leader of any other Party concerned has offered any resistance to. It is for a Union of the people of the British Isles based on the principle of equality of status and relationship for the four countries in the islands, on the model of the European Union, embracing therefore all the Irish, in a Republic, and with an Irish Presidency to initiate it.

The perspective from which the proposal is written is an imaginary one. It is that of the completely representative British sensibility. By this I mean someone who represents the four principal traditions of the Islands English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh. The question of a general nature that it addresses and offers a solution to is how to reconcile the interests of each of the countries in the islands with the greater interests of the islands as a whole. In the case of Ireland in particular the question it addresses is how to reconcile the desires of the majority in Ireland for a united country with the desires of the minority for the maintenance of a union of some sort between and within the islands.

Central to the proposal is a new definition of what is meant by the term British. As all must acknowledge this is a collective term, and first and foremost it is a geographical imperative that forces collective terms for people upon them. The definition of Britishness that the novel

adopts and from which the proposal derives is therefore the geographical one. This is the greater definition. It is the definition that by virtue of there being principally two islands of that name forces Britishness equally and unavoidably on English, Irish, Scots and Welsh alike. This is not the case with the definition presently in force. The definition presently in force is the lesser definition. It is the divisive definition that is the creation of politicians and others and that at its most divisive and most offensive tends to equate and confuse Englishness with Britishness. It is this confusion and the structure of government that derives from it that is the source of Irish disaffection with Britishness and cause therefore of the difficulty in Ireland. It is also the source of Scottish and Welsh dissaffection with the present Union of the British. Should the greater definition be adopted it will not only remove completely the difficulties produced by the lesser but it will also force on any Government that chooses to call itself a British Government the obligation to deliver Government for all the people that in the greater sense of the term the British are, and in a form with which all can be content.

This the present Government for the British signally fails to do. This is because the present Government for the British neither is now nor ever has been a British Government. The present Government for the British is now and always has been an English Government masquerading as a British Government. The reason for this is that the Parliament that bestows on the Government in Question its legitimacy and its authority is not a British Parliament. The presence within the Parliament of Scots, Welsh and selected Irish notwithstanding it is a Parliament that by not including all the Irish and by failing to make either allowance or adjustment for the numerical advantage enjoyed in the islands by the English effectively ensures that exclusively and invariably in any British judgement it is the judgement of the English that is the defining and determining one. The present Parliament for the British is now and always has been an English Parliament. No British Parliament or British Government can or will ever exist or British Judgement ever be reached without the full and equal participation of all the people that in the greater sense of the term the British are. Any British General Election conducted under the arrangements presently pertaining in the islands will do nothing to change this. It will simply confirm the cause of the difficulties in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and it will prolong them.

The Republic of the British will be a Secular Republic. It will be a Republic in which there will be no formalised or institutionalised relationship between the State and any of the

Churches of the State, and in which the appointment of the officers of the Churches of the State will be a matter for the Churches, and no other. The Faith or lack of Faith of an individual will be no impediment to anyone seeking election as Head of State of the Federal Republic. The First President of the Federal Republic will be from Ireland, and thereafter the Presidency will rotate between elected representatives from the four countries in the islands. Presidencies from Ireland, Scotland and Wales will precede the Presidency of the English, and the purpose of this is to affirm and assert the end of the Protestant and Royalist ascendancy of the English in the affairs of the British. In the Federal Republic of the British Isles it is only as a geographical notion and historical curiosity that Britain will continue to exist. As a country with a separate legal and constitutional identity of its own Britain will cease to exist. Similarly, Northern Ireland as a country with a separate legal and

constitutional identity of its own will cease to exist. The Countries composing the Federal Republic of the British Isles will be England, Scotland, Wales and a united and restored Ireland. The people of the islands will be either English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh Citizens of the Republic. There will be a separate category for those who are not native to the islands, but qualified in some other way.

Central to the proposal is a requirement for a new Flag for the British. This will be a Flag that enjoys the allegiance and the loyalty of the people of the British Isles as a whole. There is also a requirement for a new Parliament for the British. This will be a Parliament for the British in a city that is not the Capital City of any of them that includes all the Irish and in which, in matters of interest and concern to the people of the British Isles as a whole, the judgement of the English will have no greater force or validity than that of the Irish, Scots or Welsh. The Upper Chamber of the present Parliament for the British is abolished. The Lower reverts to being simply the Parliament of the English. It will be for those matters agreed by English, Irish, Scots and Welsh alike to be of an English provenance only. In matters of a British provenance each of the countries in the islands will enjoy power of veto. The purpose of this is to provide a mechanism by means of which the people of the British Isles can speak and act with greater unanimity and sense of purpose than they have ever done before. It is designed to deliver what in the Agreement reached in Ireland in 1998 is expressed in the notion of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands. It is based on principles that are similar in nature and in purpose to the Union of the Europeans and in the event that it gains the support of a majority throughout the islands one of the questions that will need to be addressed is whether or not it is possible for such a Union of the British to

achieve its fullest potential or even to operate effectively while it remains part of a Union of the Europeans that is based on principles similar to the ones upon which it is based. If the consensus is that it is not the opportunity that will present will be for the people of the British Isles to leave the European Union and pursue the more independent and more purposeful role in the world that many in the islands and elsewhere would be pleased to see them do.

All this and more is known to the Member of this House for Liverpool Riverside. All this and more the Member for Liverpool Riverside declines to invite the House to consider and offer its judgement. I have been given no reason for this and this is the reason that I am here today to ask what the Member for Liverpool Riverside cannot. This is that the House consider and offer its verdict on the following motion: That the people of the British Isles as a whole and single entity organise their affairs along lines similar to those on which the Europeans have theirs. The purpose of this would be to produce a Union of the British in which the four countries in the islands would enjoy precise equality of status and be in precisely the same relationship one with another, and this to apply irrespective not only of the size of population in each of the countries concerned but also of the level of support enjoyed within each one by the person or party with the greatest amount of support.

I thank the House for its time and attention and for the opportunity it has accorded me to make this Address. I wish the House well in its deliberations. Should the Motion be

approved and the Proposal find favour with those for whom it is designed what will be produced for the British is an even more effective and more compelling Union than the one that has existed hitherto.