Comments on: England: Will it ever awaken?

by: Toque

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:55:53 +0000

“I do think the Labour Party has a point about the two-classes of MP. The English Grand Committee just cannot work because of the neutering it would perform to Mr Brown, Mr Reid, Mr Alexander etc.”

The reason the Conservatives are leaning towards an English Grand Committee rather than English Votes on English Matters is precisely because it gets around the argument that they would be creating two classes of MPs. That is its only selling point.

It works on an already established principle.

All the other problems with EVoEM still apply.

The neutering of Labour’s Scottish contingent is not a constitutional problem, it’s just a numbers problem for the Labour Party.

by: Dave

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:18:54 +0000

But Gav we already have two classes of MP so the Conservative idea would not be creating that it would be attempting to address it.
Scots MP’s vote on matters than mostly affect England and are unaccountable, England is ruled by Scots.

End the occupation! get the Scots out!

How can you call yourself a Unionist Bill when you voted for the corrupt Union breaking devolution settlement?

by: MJW

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:25:06 +0000

I think the crunch is that Labour really needs Scottish votes to pass English legislation, if this weren’t the case then they wouldn’t be so complicit in maintaining the imbalance in public spending.

The disaster that was elected regional assemblies in England was a failed attempt to conveniently get around the issue of representation without a corresponding loss of control for the centre.

by: Gav

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:02:43 +0000

I do think the Labour Party has a point about the two-classes of MP. The English Grand Committee just cannot work because of the neutering it would perform to Mr Brown, Mr Reid, Mr Alexander etc.

But that’s a whole long debate that neither party seems willing to have seriously.

by: Bill (Scotland)

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:19:19 +0000

You may be interested to know that roughly half of last evening’s Newsnight Scotland the BBC2 spin-off which we get from 11pm each weekday evening for about 20 minutes, discussing just this issue.

The sole MP for a Scottish constituency representing the Tories accepted that there was a problem but stated that they (the Tories) were opposed to a separate English Parliament; what they seem to prefer is an ‘English Grand Committee’ where only MPs representing English constitiencies would vote on House of Commons legislation which affects England alone - he stated that this is roughly 80% of HoC business.

The other side of the debate was led by a Labour MP from Scotland who, predictably enough, did not seem to accept there was any problem at all and opposed, in particular, the creation of two ‘classes’ of MP as proposed by the Scottish Tory MP - obviously Labour would be the most affected by such a change because their majority amongst Scottish MPs at Westminster is often critical in HoC votes, specially since the 2005 election.

The lady from the Campaign for an English Parliament who was interviewed as part of the segment was so reasonable and level-headed although she made her points firmly and clearly - I think it would be difficult to take serious issue with what she said.

As a strong Unionist, who nevertheless sees that there is an urgent necessity to resolve the imbalances created by ‘devolution’ for Scotland and Northern Ireland and to a lesser degree in Wales (because the Welsh Assembly has so few real powers), I think the ‘Westminster classes’ are going to have to waken up fast to the dangers devolution has posed to the continuing existence of the UK - Labour in particular. It is no surprise that Alex Salmond, a master strategist, is supportive of fostering English discontent as he sees it as a way of hastening the day when his Party might win a referendum in Scotland - which they certainly wouldn’t now; his recent visit to Northern Ireland is all part of the same strategy.