As David Cameron establishes a new commission to look at democracy and the structure of government, Tony Blair has said he doesn't think there is a problem with regard to Scottish and Welsh MPs voting on English only issues. Some Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are now seriously thinking about the democratic deficit in England and specualting openly about whether an English parliament should be created, mirroring the powers which have been devolved to Wales & Scotland. The Campaign for an English Parliament and the English Democrats have been stepping up their campaigns for such a Parliament. It could become an important political issue. I have long been sympathetic to the idea of an English Parliament as long as it didn't replicate the cost and bureaucracy of the Scottish Parliament and didn't detract from local decision making by County and District Councils. What do you think? Take part in the poll...Tuesday, February 07, 2006
A Parliament for England? Take Part in the Poll
As David Cameron establishes a new commission to look at democracy and the structure of government, Tony Blair has said he doesn't think there is a problem with regard to Scottish and Welsh MPs voting on English only issues. Some Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are now seriously thinking about the democratic deficit in England and specualting openly about whether an English parliament should be created, mirroring the powers which have been devolved to Wales & Scotland. The Campaign for an English Parliament and the English Democrats have been stepping up their campaigns for such a Parliament. It could become an important political issue. I have long been sympathetic to the idea of an English Parliament as long as it didn't replicate the cost and bureaucracy of the Scottish Parliament and didn't detract from local decision making by County and District Councils. What do you think? Take part in the poll...
Obviously economies of scale, and the fact that UK ministeries and the UK civil service would simply become English would mean that the per capita expense would be much smaller than that for Scotland. Also there could be significant reductions in the UK parliament.
ReplyDeleteIain, I'm interested, would you be in favour of a dual-mandate system whereby English MPs sat as an English parliament and also as part of the UK parliament?
James Gray suggested that solution for Scotland but was turned on by the Scottish Conservatives.
Surely the answer is to improve consistency of approach amongst elected members by getting Scottish and Welsh MPs to sit in their own Parliament/Assembly every Monday and alternate Tuesdays and Westminster the rest of the week. English MPs could then debate English only issues at Westminster whilst Scottish and Welsh MPs are dealing with their devolved matters.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this would also have the effect of reducing the cost to the public purse of so many elected parliamentarians, which some may regard as an additional benefit!
Why another layer of power is needed is beyond me. Look to Scotland and the money spent on this useless waste of people and power. Get rid of all regional assemblies which are just troughs for more petty criminals to dine at
ReplyDeleteThe point is that the Scots, Welsh and even the Northern Irish, have all had referendums to decide what they want.
ReplyDeleteThe English are affected by this, and yet we are being denied our own say. The issue is one of democracy and we want our own referendum.
Turning the House of Commons into an English parliament and the House of Lords into a UK parliament would not increase costs that much. We would also get rid of all Tony's cronies.
I guess I'm slightly left-field but definitely in the camp that says we should have a parliament to represent England. I went through a certain 'enlightenment' phase only a month or so ago, realising that England has suffered an unjust disinvestment of its cultural interests and privileges over the last few years.
ReplyDeleteUltimately we still live in a constitutional Monarchy; ie England, Scotland, the Principality of Wales, and the territory of Northern Ireland - and not a federal republic. We have started down a path of devolution, which has not completed. Full devolved symmetry can only be realised when England has a parliament that represents England as a whole nation, and also as a Kingdom. This will give it the same status as Scotland.
I think we need to build a more balanced consensus though, and one which doesn’t inculcate anti-Scots, Welsh or Irish feeling just to further that cause. Unfortunately, this approach seems to characterise some of the arguments, and I feel it is deeply counter-productive, and will alienate those who are looking for a more positive assertion of England's national civic identity.
Devolution to the 'Regions' first, as proposed by John Prescott, is an anathema that undermines the constitutional and historical legitimacy of the English as a nation of people, and it should be rejected.
I voted yes but only because of the devolution that has already taken place, and an English Parliament is much more preferable than the regionalisation which is the governments and the EU preference.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to balance and preserve the UK is for England to have its own Parliament. A union of countries cannot co-exist in peace and harmony unless all are treated equally.
ReplyDeleteIf we don't get an English Parliament, then complete independence is the only other option.
I've seen enough of what a Scottish led government will do to England, and it makes me sick to my stomach that our own MPs say and do nothing to prevent it!
The way devolution in Wales and Scotland was set up with hundreds of new politicians and new buildings leads me to believe that the intention was for them to have total Independence anyway.Their politicians will only walk away from Westminster when England is regionalized and dragged into the EU.I was a life long labour voter,
ReplyDeletenow I hate them.They have made being English akin to scraping some thing nasty of your shoe.
An English Parliament is neccessary.The Scots Welsh and Irish can please them selves, I've had enough of them.
Absolutely right. Cameron could steal a real march on Brown with this one. And as one of the Scottish MPs with a continuing rather large say over English-only matters - eg how much local authorities are allowed to spend - Brown would be placed in an extremely difficult position.
ReplyDeleteI think this issue (and PR for Westminster?) could well become a test of just how radical Cameron is prepared to be.
As a Scot I am obvliously not going to vote but I have an opinion. I support federalism as a system because allows the experimental method in politics (IE try several different solutions in defferent regions & see what does & doesn't work). However for it to work well England would have to have several regional assemblies - One English region would so overshadow the country being about 86% of population as to seriously destabalise the constitution (like the USSR except the Russian Federation was only half the country).
ReplyDeleteThe other question Tory supporters are going to have to face is PR. Would a regional assembly be elected by PR - which is how the others are? Remember that at the last election 60,000 more people in England voted Tory than Labour, though under PR this is still very far from a majority. However under the FPTP system labour still have a much larger number of seats.
As I say this is entirely England's choice but it is a can of worms which should be opened with judicious care.
How about removing the rights of MPs for non-English constituencies to vote on matters devolved to their own nations' parliaments? They could still be allowed to speak in debates, as opinion can always be useful.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I would support an English parliament.
Neil Craig, We will not have regional assemblies just to preserve the union. A federal structure will not work either.
ReplyDeleteThe complaint from Scotland is that they are not treated as an equal country by England.A federal british government could vote to go to war on the strength of English votes when Scotland votes no.This would lead to further and regular accusations of Scottish soldiers fighting for England, you know the one Neil. This is not just pub talk neil, a journalist of the glasgow herald the other week said that scottish soldiers were being sent to iraq whilst English soldiers were gaurding the queen. Time to end the affair I think and go for English Independence.
Iain, you need to get off that fence before you fall off!
ReplyDeleteCurrently there are 646 British MP's sitting in Westminster. That's too many already and a disproportionately high number of those are Scottish. I say disproportionately in terms of both population and the amount of legislation affecting that country.
I am an ardent supporter of an English Parliament but even I would be critical of an English Parliament while 646 MP's still sat in the British government. I would still support it because there is far too much discrimination against England for us not to have a parliament.
The establishment of an English Parliament has to co-incide with a drastic reduction in the size of the British government. This, I think, is one of the things holding MP's back - the idea that their constituency will disappear (along with their comfort zone) and they will have to choose a different career or stand for election for an English Parliament when they have devoted their political career to finding new ways of shafting us.
EVoEL is a nice idea but it can't work. Scotland and Wales will declare an interest in anything that costs money because it will affect their block grant. There are many, many other reasons which have all been listed before and can be read on toque's blog.
If the Conservatives really are a unionist party then they really need to start pushing for an English Parliament. Inequality and discrimination will break the union up far more rapidly and acrimoniously than devolution.
Just us Iain before you get splinters somewhere unmentionable.
I meant "join us", not "just us".
ReplyDelete