Today is Saint George’s Day - the National Day for England. The 23rd April is the traditionally accepted date of St George’s death in 303 AD. It was crusaders who probably first brought back the story of St George slaying a dragon to save a young princess from being its victim. Quickly he became the patron saint of England and so it remains to this day.
I wonder if the current euphemistic ‘dragon’ of this General Election is the dreadful thought that what happens in England might be determined by the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) after the General Election. On Monday this week Ed Miliband refused to rule out some form of alliance with the SNP. Opinion polls advise that he cannot get a majority as Labour is forecast to lose over 30 seats (perhaps more) in Scotland and suggesting that the Labour leader will have to win over 100 seats in England which I don’t think will happen. So it may be that Mr Miliband will only be able to govern if the SNP props him up.
The price for such cooperation will be more spending (especially in Scotland), more borrowing and higher taxes (especially in England). We have already seen Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour Leader, state categorically that he was perfectly prepared to use London as a ‘cash cow’ for Scotland so this scenario is perfectly logical. In addition the SNP have declared that the removal of Trident from Scotland will also form part of their ‘danegeld’.
I was greatly saddened by what has happened in Scotland over the last year or so and was surprised that 45 per cent of voting Scots seemed quite prepared to break up the union which I think works very much to their favour. There is already considerable inequality of resource allocation – according to the Barnett Formula – which gives each person in Scotland over £1,400 more of Central Government grant than we get in Beckenham. The Scottish Government uses that, I presume, to fund free university tuition (for Scots and Europeans but not the English), and free prescriptions. We pay for that without getting it ourselves. I wonder how much longer we will put up with such a situation? I am half English and half Scottish but am very worried by the political direction the land of my father’s birth seems to be taking.
Going back to St George and his legend, we in England may need a metaphorical knight in shining armour to save the day at the General Election. I wonder if that latter day saint might be the whole British people – in Scotland too as well as Wales, Northern Ireland and England – who use their vote to ensure that we all have an equal say in what happens in the country? Perhaps though we may be saved - one way or other - by the innate good sense of the electorate! I truly hope so.