One of the lesser known questions batting around in British politics at the moment is what to do about England. Now that the Scots and Welsh have, respectively, an Assembly and a Parliament, when do the English actually get to rule themselves? As far as the European Union is concerned it should be a “Europe of the Regions” and the English state becomes an irrelevance, divided up into some number of regions. We also have what is known as the “West Lothian Question”, something first raised by Gladstone back in the 19th century. Now that there is this Scottish Parliament, why are Scottish MPs allowed to vote on matters in England? More specifically, the Scottish MPs at Westminster cannot vote on various matters to do with Scotland….hunting, care for the elderly, the education system, fees for university students to take a few, as these are decided by that Scottish P. Nor, of course, can English MPs. However, the Scottish MPs are allowed to vote on these matters as they apply to England. Quite obviously unfair.
There are two, possibly three, solutions to this obvious unfairness. One would be the creation of an English Parliament as laid out here. A second could be the creation of an English Grand Committee within the current Westminster Parliament. I’m not 100% certain but I think that this is the way, via a Scottish Grand Committee, that exclusive to Scotland (ie the legal system, which is different from that in England and Wales) matters were dealt with before the creation of the Scottish Parliament.
The third is the one that is currently being tried, dividing England up into a series of regions, thus, in effect, denying the English their voice in the UK. Good news then from the Telegraph on the first referendum campaign being run on whether to have one of these regional assemblies. It looks like the voters don’t like the idea.
Behind all of this seemingly recondite constitutional manouvering are some hard political facts: The Labour Party would find it very difficult to get a majority (they would have one today, but not in more normal times) in an English Parliament, just as the Tories will never get one in the Scottish. An English Parliament would not allow the Barnett Formula to continue, the system by which 30 billion a year of tax money is sucked out of England and spent in Scotland. And, of course, all those Scots, people like Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, John Reid, would never be able to be Ministers with authority for England.
I think the Campaign for an English Parliament are right, if the Scots and the Welsh get to run their own affairs so should we. I am, however, willing to compromise, and settle for a Grand Committee.