|
The second meeting of the newly formed Southend branch of the English Democrats took place on Wednesday 12th October. The meeting was ably chaired by English Democrat member Tony Gladwin. First up was branch chairman Stuart Freeman. Stuart announced that 14 people have now come forward to stand as candidates for the party in next year's Southend Council elections. With 7 months still to go, he expects to be able to field a full slate of 17 candidates. There was a lively discussion on the news that a conservative councillor in Southend, Blaine Robin, has been suspended by his local branch for attending an EDL meeting on Southend sea front. The English Democrats believe in freedom of association. There was general agreement that Councillor Robin, or anybody else for that matter, should be free to associate with whoever they like in their own time and should not be penalised for it. After a short break, it was time to introduce the guest speaker, Steve Uncles, the English Democrats South East Chairman and Events Organiser. Steve gave an interesting talk on England's political history followed by a brief history of the English Democrats. The audience was told that the Kingdom of England, which included Wales, was a sovereign state until 1 May 1707, when a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland created the Kingdom of Great Britain. England, which makes up about 83% of the UK, has been without its own Parliament since 1707. The English Democrats are leading the campaign to re-establish the English Parliament. Steve continued with a brief history of the English Democrats: "The party started off as the English National Party in 1998. It was started in response to the 1998 Scotland Act which established the devolved Scottish Parliament. The party was re-launched as the English Democrats in 2002 after merging with several other small political parties. From 2002 onwards, the party has made steady progress. The English Democrats' first national election campaign was the 2004 EU Election. This was the campaign which introduced the slogan, "Not right, Not Left, Just English!". English Democrat candidates won 130,056 votes in total. In October 2004, the English Democrats merged with the Reform UK Party, of which Peter Davies was a member. This was a small splinter group from UKIP. Peter Davies became the English Democrats Mayor of Doncaster in 2009. The London mayoral election of 2008 saw the first English Democrats billboards go up and the first English Democrats election broadcast. The party currently has 1 County Councillor, 5 Borough Councillors and an elected Mayor in Doncaster, as well as a number of parish councillors." Please send your meeting and activity reports to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so that these can be publicised on this website.
 |
|
Southend on Sea October Meeting
Written by Administrator
|
