The Acting
Witan arose out of a group called the Mercia Movement, who researched and
published as The Mercia Manifesto
their vision of an autonomous and sustainable bioregion in the English
Midlands. In 2001 this led to the
calling of a widely publicised Mercian Constitutional Convention to debate a
draft constitution for the region. The
Convention worked patiently and good-humouredly for many months to agree a
constitution. Its efforts culminated in a
declaration of independence read out in front of the Birmingham Council House on
Mercian Independence Day, 29th May 2003.
Those who wished to remain active in campaigning for de facto self-government
constituted themselves as the Acting Witan and have continued to lead political
regionalism in Mercia.
At one
level this may all sound like play-acting, the Government-of-Mercia-in-Internal-Exile.
In fact, relentless legitimacy is remarkably powerful in its ability to
put the London
regime on the spot. The Acting Witan has
signed up over 2,000 people as registered citizens of Mercia. How many citizens does the UK have? None, is the answer, only subjects of a
Norman Crown. How good does that look in
comparison? The Witan’s Convener, Jeff
Kent, has succeeded in having himself removed from the electoral register on
the grounds that he’s a Mercian, not British citizen. Bureaucracy has no way of knowing how to
respond to the unexpected and so eventually gives in. We were told
of correspondence with the London regime in
which civil servants are being backed into a corner until they ultimately
accept the role being written for them, as the UK’s
appointed negotiators over the formal transference of power to Mercia.
Meanwhile, Mercian
consciousness is growing, thanks to helpful events like the discovery of the
Staffordshire Hoard. We were shown
letters from successive Leaders of Stoke-on-Trent City Council looking forward
to working with the Acting Witan in promoting Mercian culture. Plans include a Mercia Day, which Stoke
acknowledges will need to be co-ordinated with other local authorities across
the region.
One reason
perhaps why regionalism is rushing up the agenda, driven this time from outside
the London
parties, is the size of the gap between what those parties laughingly call ‘devolution’
and what the term actually implies.
While Scotland has a First Minister accountable to Scotland’s parliament,
the regions of England are to be reorganised into arbitrary areas headed by
elected mayors that no-one asked for. And accountable? Oh yes, once every four years, and in the meantime free to strut about like Mussolini to conceal their lack of real power. Patience with London’s lies is wearing
thin.
Natural and
human systems often have a weak point that is an aspect of their greatest
strength. The London
regime’s greatest strength is its antiquity, and its weak point is the
ultimately unlawful nature of that, namely, the Crown stolen at Hastings.
The Acting Witan plans, when its resources allow, to set up a regional
court to try establishment figures for numerous crimes against the land and
people of Mercia. Seats in the public gallery can be expected
to go very early that day!
Our
relations with the Acting Witan have always been exceptionally good. Both our movements recognise that the other
is trying out an experiment to see if it works.
Ours is to see if an English regionalist party can follow the electoral
path to success that the Celtic nationalist parties have mapped out. The Mercian road to regionalism seeks instead
to re-invent politics itself from the bottom up. It’s not a race, but we both hope to learn
whatever we can from the experiences of the other.
WR started
earlier, in a blaze of publicity in 1974, and have managed largely to avoid
splits and splinters. Mercia has not
fared so well, with a galaxy of often tiny groups claiming to speak for the
region, sometimes reacting to the discovery of the others by refusing to work
with them. It could be a parody of Monty Python’s Life of Brian: the Mercian People’s Front versus the People’s Front
of Mercia. From what we observed
yesterday, that seems to be on the point of changing. The ground has been cleared. Now the time to plant has come.
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