Cllr. Gavin Ayling

I don’t think the party politics of the English makes any difference to the necessity to have fair and equitable representation for the English. Non-English MPs not voting on English-only matters does go some way to reducing the problem, but does not solve it entirely.

The English need to be able to present potential legislation for their people. They need to be able to make executive decisions (as cabinet MPs do) without having to rely on hope to ensure that the cabinet MP is not Scottish (as in John Reid as Health minister or Gordon Brown as Chancellor).

Further, if people are voting in a General Election, they are voting for MPs to the UK parliament. Whether people accept it now or not, there is a difference to how people vote depending on where they are voting. In European elections I know Tories and Lib Dems who voted for UKIP, equally, I am sure people who voted SNP at General Elections, vote Lib or Lab at Scottish Parliament elections. Using assumption or extrapolating from other results is not the way to run a democratic country.

There is a political equivalent of the SNP and Plaid Cymru in England, but, because of the size of England, there is no realistic prospect of the EDP gaining enough votes. http://www.thecep.org.uk is the only way the English have of expressing their concerns and, as their support is growing, it is more and more obvious that people are concerned not only about the West Lothian question, but also about England as a nation.