English Commonwealth supports the establishment of an English Parliament within the United Kingdom but, if necessary, outwith the United Kingdom. England is more than a 90-minute nation and should have no part in a supposed ‘Union of Equals’ that confines legitimate expressions of English identity to sport. We have the same right to a constitutional, democratic and institutional expression of our national identity as the other nations of the United Kingdom.
Adapting the words of the 1998 Scottish Claim of Right, we demand the sovereign right of the English people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs. Just like Scotland, England is a nation and, as such, we have the right to self-determination. Equality within a ‘Union of Equals’ demands that right. The referendums in 1998 leading to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly set a precedent: if the people of Scotland and Wales should be consulted on whether they want their own national governments, then so too should the English. In a sense, the issue is as simple as that: let the people of England decide how they wish to be governed.
As a nation, England has been denied the right to say ‘Yes’ to anything.
English Commonwealth is not an independence campaign but we oppose the British nationalist conceptualisation of the UK as one nation. The United Kingdom is a multinational state and we believe that it should be a voluntary union, with each component nation entitled to self-determination and a mechanism by which it can leave the Union or consent to the Union. In this sense, English Commonwealth stands in spirit with YesScotland and YesCymru.
English Commonwealth 