British Academy excludes the C.E.P. from conference on English governance

Dear Members and Supporters

The following e-mail tree shows the obstacles that our campaign for an English Parliament has to overcome. The British Academy did not include the Campaign for an English Parliament in their conference on how England should be governed. As I mentioned to Martin Rogers, who organised the event, the irony of having an conference about ‘governing England’ which excludes the main organisation advocating an English Parliament is plain to see.

The e-mail tree starts at the bottom. Your support is needed and appreciated.

All the Best Eddie

—–Original Message—–
From: eddiejbone <eddiejbone@aol.co.uk>
To: martinr
Sent: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 11:01
Subject: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England – Campaign for an English Parliament excluded
Dear Martin
Thank you for replying to my e-mail but I would have to disagree with your point about not allowing advocates of any one solution to governing England to speak at the conference.
I have met, over the years, a number of your speakers and some are enthusiastic advocates of breaking England up by regionalisation and are opponents of an English Parliament.

It appears that you, as a representative of the British Academy, are happy to allow those advocates to speak at your conference but are unhappy to allow the leading non-partisan organisation that advocates a collective voice for England via an English Parliament to speak. This is despite an ICM poll putting support for an English parliament at 65%. Yet you ignore this powerful argument
(Please see attachment. If you take out the ‘don’t knows’ you have 65% in favour of an English Parliament, with 35% against. Even more telling is that 40% who expressed a view stating that England should be an independent country. This ICM poll 2014, highlights the shift in England).

Also, you don’t need to be a Professor or even an Honorary Professor to outline a case for an English Parliament. To say the conference:- ‘is one of intellectual and academic analysis rather than advocacy’ is plainly ridiculous and smacks of academic snobbery. In my opinion, it damages the reputation of the organisation you work for. The British Academy states on its website:- ‘that it provides a forum for examining issues at the heart of society and the economy’. you have failed do this in this conference because you have excluded one of the main proponents of the debate from the conference.

If you had approached our organisation and not excluded us, we would have put forward a professor or an academic to balance this terribly one-sided conference. But you didn’t approach us and with only one day before the conference that would now be an impossible task. Again I request that we are included in the conference speaker line-up.
For clarity as an organisation we have produced pamphlets, books, given evidence to number of Parliamentary committees, given speeches across the country and undertaken numerous media interviews. The list is significant and as pointed out, our involvement in how England is governed is far more significant than some of your speakers.
Below are a couple of examples.
CEP Speech – Winchester University – Part 1and 2


An interview undertaken by the Express was published online on the 2nd July 2017. Within the article is an interview taken at Huddersfield University.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/823826/theresa-may-dup-snp-united-kingdom-eddie-bone-campaign-for-english-parliament
And finally, again for clarity, I applied for ‘Press Accreditation’ but was turned down. That is the first time that I have known that a conference organiser has turned down coverage of their event.
Regards

Eddie Bone, Campaign Director
Campaign for an English Parliament

—–Original Message—–
From: Martin Rogers
To: eddiejbone
Sent: Mon, 3 Jul 2017 17:21
Subject: RE: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England – Campaign for an English Parliament excluded
Dear Mr Bone,

Thank you for your email of Friday 30 June.

I understand the concerns you raise, but the event to which you refer is an academic conference to which academics have been invited. The aim of the British Academy in arranging such conferences is one of intellectual and academic analysis rather than advocacy. We issued invitations to what we considered to be suitable participants.

As you know, an automated waiting list is set up for those not able to attend. You have added yourself to this waiting list and if there is space for you to attend you will be made aware of this. Please be aware that the event is considerably oversubscribed.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Rogers
Policy Adviser (Public Policy)

From: eddiejbone@aol.co.uk
Sent: 30 June 2017 14:04
To: Martin Rogers
Cc:
Subject: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England – Campaign for an English Parliament excluded

Dear Martin

In response to your e-mail dated 29th June 2017

Your exclusion of the Campaign for an English Parliament, although disappointing, was not a surprise. I had already looked at your profile and realised that both your internships were with Labour MPs. Anne Snelgrove being a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who vigorously promoted the break-up of England by Regionalisation.

Not having the option of an English Parliament properly included in the line-up shows your hand as undemocratic and partisan and leads us to believe that this event is now just another anti- English attempt to promote Regionalisation of England again. You will be essentially talking to yourselves in this event and do not wish to be confused by any facts or any opposing views. Your exclusion of us is damning because it shows that you had no intention to give the option of an English Parliament a fair debate.

We strongly believe that your exclusion of the Campaign for an English Parliament, who are the leading non-party political advocates of an English parliament, has made this event no more than a biased political gathering where the discussion will be predominately against England’s collective interests.

For clarity, I also thought your two comments, in your previous e-mails, were contradictory. To say it is now too late to include us was bizarre because it was you who excluded us in the first place!

You acknowledged that you did the inviting and had overlooked the main area of contention. You must see the irony of having an event about ‘governing England’ which excludes the main organisation advocating an English Parliament from the event.

(Please do not think that giving Frank Field, ‘5 minutes’ on the subject of an English Parliament in any way makes us believe that this event is unbiased)

We believe that your political bias is also demonstrated by overloading the event with speakers advocating Regionalisation of England without counterbalancing it with speakers wanting a collective voice for England. This risks damaging the reputation and integrity of the British Academy itself.

This is a pity for an organisation that has a distinguished past.
I shall, therefore, give you a final chance to step back from excluding the Campaign for an English Parliament from the line-up of speakers and to allow all the options of ‘governing England’ to be fully debated.

Regards
Eddie Bone
Campaign Director
Campaign for an English Parliament

—–Original Message—–
From: Martin Rogers
To: eddiejbone
CC:
Subject: RE: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England
Dear Eddie,

Thank you for your email and for forwarding the articles. I have checked with our press team and unfortunately we only have a limited number of press passes available which have also now all been allocated. So, as the conference is fully booked and space is very limited in the room we are using, we are still unable to offer you a space.

This invitation-only conference has a largely academic focus with a small number of commentators. I am sorry that you were not included but at this late stage it is not possible add another speaker to our panel session on ‘England In The UK Parliament’.

The conference will be recorded and available on the British Academy website after the event.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Rogers
Policy Adviser (Public Policy)
The British Academy – for the humanities and social sciences – is a registered charity (no. 233176).

From: eddiejbone@aol.co.uk
Sent: 29 June 2017 10:00
To: Martin Rogers
Cc:
Subject: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England

Dear Mr Rogers
I am aware that the conference is full as I am currently on a waiting list, as such I now request Press accreditation for the event.
My initial question was not about attending the conference but why a representative of the Campaign for an English Parliament had not been included in the line-up of speakers.

I have noted that only Frank Field is speaking about an English Parliament. For the sake of fairness and to ensure that The British Academy does not allow itself to fall into the trap of ‘appearing’ biased against an English Parliament, I now formally request that a representative from the Campaign for an English Parliament is included as a speaker within that section?
I also thought it would be worthwhile to include a ‘small sample of articles’ that the Campaign for an English Parliament has had published as they go back to 2010. I hope you will acknowledge that the contribution made by the Campaign for an English Parliament in this debate is far more significant than a number of the speakers you have included.

Kind Regards

Eddie Bone, RN, RMN, BS (NUJ 003956)

Campaign Director
Campaign for an English Parliament

Mobile 07980667732

A minister for England? 2016

https://www.progressonline.org.uk/2016/03/14/a-minister-for-england/

Can there be an English future for Labour? 2015

https://www.progressonline.org.uk/2015/09/03/can-there-be-an-english-future-for-labour/

England needs its own red rose to bloom 2015

https://www.progressonline.org.uk/2015/07/30/england-needs-its-own-red-rose-to-bloom/

‘The Labour Party’s future in England is on a knife edge’ 2015

http://www.theoptimisticpatriot.co.uk/

British future 2013

https://www.britishfuture.org/national-conversations/will-englishness-have-a-political-dimension/

Graham Jones MP blog – Labour needs to grab English policy making by the collar and accept that the English do not want regionalisation 2013

http://hhgrahamjones.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/guest-article-countering-calls-for.html

Newstatesman, The Staggers 2010,2012

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/why-labour-should-support-english-parliament

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/08/labour-party-england-English

One Nation – Surely Ed Miliband Must Know That the English Don’t Believe That Anymore? 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/eddie-bone/one-nation-surely-ed-mili_b_1942077.html

—–Original Message—–
From: Martin Rogers
To: eddiejbone
CC: mhk30
Sent: Wed, 28 Jun 2017 17:03
Subject: RE: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England
Dear Mr Bone,

Thank you very much for your email. I am very sorry that you did not receive an invitation, I can assure you it was not intentional. Sadly, the conference is now full.

Please accept my apologies.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Rogers
Policy Adviser (Public Policy)
The British Academy – for the humanities and social sciences – is a registered charity (no. 233176).

From: eddiejbone@aol.co.uk
Sent: 28 June 2017 16:28
To: Martin Rogers
Cc:
Subject: Governing England: Devolution and Identity in England

Dear Martin

It has just been sent details of the event being held on the 5th July 2017 and unfortunately I have noted that a representative of the Campaign for an English Parliament has not been included in the line-up of speakers.

As you are probably aware we have been involved in this debate since 1998. We have also given evidence to a number of parliamentary committees and have an established voice on how England should be governed.

I would like to ask if our exclusion was an oversight?

Please don’t hesitate to call me on 07980667732

Kind Regards

Eddie Bone

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