THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ENGLISH CONFEDERATION

Discover the Constitution of The English Confederation (2021) in its entirety.

1. The initial membership of The English Confederation consists of Independent Mercia and Independent Northumbria.

2. The other historic (pre-Norman Conquest) and de jure independent English regions will be encouraged to apply to join the Confederation, so that it ultimately represents the whole of England. Successful applications will require the agreement of all the existing member regions of the Confederation.

3. To become members of the Confederation, all applying regions must be in fundamental harmony with this Constitution and must have an agreed regional Constitution or at least a detailed constitutional statement clearly stating its key principles, which must be democratic in nature. In addition, all member regions must have an open membership policy to all the people living in their region and, preferably, a system of registering citizens of the region.

4. The campaign and marketing name of the Confederation is Independent England.

5. The fundamental objectives of the Confederation are:

a. To free de jure Independent England and its historic confederation of the regions from the illegal control of the Norman-British United Kingdom.

b. To progress and achieve the de facto independence of England as a holistic society based on its historic regions under the core principles of organic democracy, co-operative community and ecological balance.

c. For the member regions to work together within the Confederation for the common good, in co-operation and a spirit of mutual friendship.

d. For the member regions to adopt a common position on external affairs whenever possible.

e. For the member regions to evolve common defensive strategies and to combine defensive forces in crisis situations whenever possible.

6. Membership of the Confederation is entirely voluntary and any member region is free to leave at any point if it wishes to do so.

7. All member regions will retain complete sovereignty over their own territory, none of which will be under the control of the Confederation itself at any time, the role of which is purely co-ordinational.

8. The shared boundaries of all member regions must at all times conform with those of all their contiguous member regions. To avoid boundary disputes and possible conflict within the Confederation, regions applying to join the Confederation must absolutely respect and agree to the territories and boundaries of the existing member regions as a condition of membership.

9. The boundaries and territories of the member regions may change only by the mutual agreement of those regions of the Confederation affected by such.

10. The agreed boundary between Independent Mercia and Independent Northumbria is that which forms the northern border of the territory of the former as stated in Article 1.1 of The Constitution of Mercia.

11. All member regions have equal rights, authority and decision-making powers regardless of their size, population and number of representatives/delegates present at any Confederation meeting.

12. All decisions will be taken by consensus and therefore the Confederation is empowered to act as such only in situations and on matters when its member regions are in complete agreement.

13. A region’s membership of the Confederation may be suspended if necessary, by the consensus of all the other member regions, if it undertakes actions which contradict this Constitution. Any suspension should be lifted once the region resumes a constitutional path.

14. A region’s membership of the Confederation may be terminated if it is unrepresented at and makes no contribution to three consecutive meetings and all the other member regions decide by consensus that its membership should be ended.

15. The Confederation will meet at least twice a year (at least once face to face) unless its member regions decide otherwise by consensus.

16. To enable flexibility, the specific dates, times, venues and means of the meetings will be decided by consensus at the end of or following the previous meeting.

17.  The activities of the Confederation will be co-ordinated by a Co-ordinator elected by consensus. For democratic reasons, the post should ideally rotate periodically (not more frequently than annually) between the member regions in turn, although, for consistency or because of an emergency or some other need, the post may be held for an indefinite period ultimately determined by consensus.

18. The Confederation meetings will be facilitated by a Facilitator elected by consensus. For democratic reasons, the post should ideally rotate periodically (not more frequently than annually) between the member regions in turn, although, for consistency or because of an emergency or some other need, the post may be held for an indefinite period ultimately determined by consensus.

19. The Confederation will be free to establish other working posts, by consensus, if it wishes.

20. Ideally the meetings should be peripatetic with the member regions hosting them in turn for fairness unless agreed otherwise by consensus.

21. If so required, decisions taken by the Confederation are subject to ratification by the member regions, which undertake to notify the Co-ordinator of such or otherwise within a maximum period of two calendar months.

22. The Co-ordinator will send the dates, times and venues of all forthcoming meetings of the Confederation to all the member regions as soon as is possible, with notice of not less than a calendar month unless a short-notice meeting is required in an emergency.

23. The Co-ordinator will be responsible for sending meeting agendas and the previous meeting minutes to all the member regions, to be received not less than a week before the next meeting. The agendas will consist of all items received by the Co-ordinator from the member regions by two weeks before the date of the next meeting.

24. The Confederation meetings will be its main decision-making forum, but, to enable speedy responses in required situations, any member region will be free at any time to ask the Co-ordinator to send a communication to all the member regions within 48 hours asking for responses to whatever is proposed within the following 48 hours, with any required decision to be taken at the expiration of that time by the consensus of the contributing members.

25. All media releases carrying the name of the Confederation must be approved by an officer of the Confederation other than the writer and, if possible, by all its member regions.

26. All member regions will be entitled to elect an administrator for the website of the Confederation and one for each of its social media sites. The decisions of the administrators in each case should be taken by consensus.

27. This Constitution is agreed by each member region through its elected signatories of the confederating document.

28. This Constitution may be amended only by the consensus of all the member regions.