Manifesto 1: The West Lothian Question

With a general election inevitable in the next few months, this is the first of what may become a series of blogs on matters I would like to see addressed by the next government.

The Labour Government has, since its election in 1997, devolved a certain range of powers and responsibilities to Scotland and Wales by creating a directly-elected Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. In doing so, England is left in an anomalous position, since there is no equivalent English Assembly to exercise the same powers and responsibilities in England.

It's not like they weren't warned of the problem. As early as 1977, when devolution was discussed  in the House of Commons, the MP for West Lothian asked  "For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate... at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?" This issue has since this time become known as "The West Lothian Question"

This situation has already caused controversy, with the government relying on Scottish MP's to win a vote to ensure English students pay top-up fees at university, while the Scottish Parliament ensured that Scottish students did not have to pay them.

The absurdity of this situation was illustrated for me at work today. I work for a charity which lobbies governments - the UK Parliament, The Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. In drawing up a manifesto to give to MP's for the Westminster election, the following became clear:

a) The points in the manifesto for the Westminster elections could only relate to England, since the matters considered were devolved in Wales and Scotland to their respective devolved assemblies, which had separate elections.
b) The manifesto would go to English candidates - the issues would affect their constituents and they might win or lose votes on these issues
c) Scottish and Welsh MPs also received a copy of the manifesto, with a cover note explaining that these issues would not affect their constituents at all, but they might like bear them in mind because they would be able to vote on them in England!

This blatantly unjust anomaly must be resolved, either by limiting votes on English matters to English MPs or by creating a separately elected English Parliament. Failure to do so brings British democracy into disrepute, and over time, the resentment caused will fuel English Nationalism and poison the relationship between the nations of the UK.