I am less than reassured by the headline 'Save Our Forests' (the 'Our' means England's since the Scottish and Welsh forests have been protected by Scottish and Welsh politicians) on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph. There is no mandate for the selling of English forests. It was not in the manifestos of the Conservative or Liberal Democrat parties. Indeed, the Coalition as such has no mandate and is merely a further expression of contempt for the remnants of democracy in England. To date we note:

1. Discrimination against English students at English and British universities (the fees of Scottish and Welsh students being paid for by British taxes delivered to the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly).

2. A threat to English forests and to the English way of life in respect of the ownership of English forests. The MP for the Forest of Dean, Mark Harper, a fellow student of David Camer­on from his days at Brasenose College, Oxford, has little time to spare for the anxieties of his constituents in the Forest of Dean.

3. A high-speed railway from London to Birmingham which constitutes a similar threat to the very heart of England. This is a railway line presumably for the benefit of bankers and MPs on expenses.

4. Support of a bailout for Ireland and for the euro, that is, for non-English interests, amounting to billions.

5. Indulgence for bank­ers, for whom David Cameron has expressed a special sympathy.

Do the Conservatives hate England? It seems the only logical conclusion.

They destroyed our railways in the 1960s. They did not defend our grammar schools when they had the opportunity to do so, but instead they waged war against the miners in the 1980s.They refuse the English a referendum on Europe to the present day whilst pretending to take a strong and independent stance on Europe.

They support needless foreign wars that only imperil the security of England. They are mostly the product of public-school privilege who have long lost a sense of public and patriotic duty and social justice. They have systematically betrayed the heritage that the English working classes sacrificed their lives for in 1939-1945 and which George VI sought to articulate in his speech to the English nation (among other nations) on the declaration of war in 1939 (a war that needed no Chilcot to justify).

Sad to say, the British have been conditioned by the intellectual habits of imperialism. Democracy, and more especially the love of democracy, is a foreign language to them.

– Gerald Morgan, Trinity College, Dublin.