This is bull. The “inexperienced college student” (your words) clearly is not studying geography either!
How could an English parliament NOT include Cornwall? How can an English parliament NOT include the “south east”? Serious credibility gap here!
Wasn’t it you who referred to Boris as an “idiot”?
Yes England CURRENTLY contains London + South East and Cornwall, however…
Cornwall is rather different to the rest of England; it has its own language, culture and even its own flag (which is flown all over the country), they are only part of England in name only and there are not too many “locals” who can say they are proud of being “English”
But that’s a separate argument completely than when it comes to London + SE…
The question is not “are Londoners proud to English/British?” they are without a doubt, the problem is that there is a growing gap between London, its metropolitan area and commuter belt and the rest of the UK (not just the rest of England), this is reflected economically, employment, tax revenue, investment, socially and even in our own aviation sector
Overall the difference is vast, such much so that a resident of Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle have more in common with the a resident of Cardiff, Swansea, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen than a resident London, Brighton, Oxford and Chelmsford
How is this going to work when it comes to an English Parliament?
Would you want an English Parliament that was bias in favour of 40% of its population (London, its metropolitan area and commuter belt) over the other 60% of its population (rest of England)?
Remember the British Parliament is already bias in favour of 1/3 of its population (London, its metropolitan area and commuter belt) over the other 2/3 of its population (rest of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), this is one of the reasons (the others include nationalism and economic)
So I am suggesting devolution (separately) to both London (its urban area, metropolitan area and commuter belt) and the rest of England, for the sake of keeping the union together (unless the 5 home nations agree to end it), because there is resentment from all side of the UK about the current setup
Lastly does it matter (as a Londoner) if it’s an “English” or “London” running things where you live?
As for Boris, surely you don’t know that he is better at hosting HIGNFY, than being mayor, he has spent millions on new “Borismaster” buses, he has made sure London got a raw deal in terms of sponsoring the bike scheme and the cable car (not such a good idea); he has scraped the South London Tram and abandoned AND revived the Dagenham Dock DLR project, he got too close to Murdoch and he is popular because he a good personality, not because he has good polices (even from a right-wing perspective), may I go on…