English Democrats want English Parliament

1:09pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

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THE English Democrats said they want a strong, democratic England, united and governed by its own people.

The group's by-election candidate David Roberts said he wants an English Parliament with a First Minister for England and a Government with similar powers to the Scottish ones.

He said: "We also want an end to unfair subsidies to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"We would like to make St George's Day our national holiday so that old and young can come together to celebrate our national community England!

"The English Democrats have strong environmentally friendly policies.

"We believe that the way to tackle rubbish is to focus on reducing its creation by reducing packaging on products rather than just by penalising ordinary people and reducing the numbers of bin collections.

"We want to fight for English equality where devolution has provided benefits not currently enjoyed by our people.

"The best examples are in relation to free prescriptions, hospital parking, tuition fees and access to expensive cancer drugs in Wales.

"Higher public spending per head as is also the case in Scotland where long term care for the elderly does not require the sale of their home in order to cover costs."

Father of two Mr Roberts, aged 53, lives at Tushingham in Cheshire and attended Manchester Metropolitan University.

He is an experienced chemist and was recently elected Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

He twice been a local council candidate for the English Democrats.