David Miliband Rules Out an English Parliament

Writing in the New Statesman, David Miliband, Labour leadership hopeful, has ruled out an English parliament.

As a Scottish prime minister confronting the Anglocentric media, he sought to emphasise the bonds of Britishness. His was a heartfelt and rigorous account of British national identity but it failed to capture the public imagination. Moreover, as Gordon was seeking to construct an idea of Britishness from above, more and more of our fellow citizens were expressing an identity bound up in the history and iconography of England, Wales and Scotland. Gordon's great achievement was to solve the Scottish question (of a Scottish prime minister governing the UK in an age of devolution), but he did not resolve Labour's English question.

Labour needs a revived politics of Englishness rooted in a radical and democratic account of nationhood. We need to draw upon a specifically English story that points to the battle for social justice born of a proud tradition of personal liberty and independence - as resentful of corporate elites as meddling bureaucracy.

The challenge is to translate a notion of Englishness into the veins of our politics. One of the defining features of Englishness is its very diversity. There are many Englands: there is the conservative England of G K Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and now David Cameron and Nick Clegg; there is also the leftist England by which I am inspired - of mutualism, co-operation and the epic history of places such as the north-east, home to my constituency.

Robin Hood
On policy, the English commitment to democracy, to equal life chances and to challenging corporate excess can be seen in widespread support for an elected Lords, free school meals and the "Robin Hood" tax. The politics of England are also closely bound up in questions of the governance of Britain. Labour as a party remains too centralised, too London-dominated. We must recognised that, after a strong start, our mission to devolve power and challenge the centralised British state foundered.

An "English Parliament" is not the answer. We must strengthen the civic pride and economic resilience of English towns and cities. This is how the sense of identity, belonging and place of the many Englands can be better embedded and expressed. Labour needs to work with the grain of local and institutional affiliations - from army regiments to hospitals, from fire services to local authorities.

Extract from Labour needs to reconnect with England, New Statesman, 1st July 2010