Delighted to read on John Redwood's new blog HERE that he is fully signed up to my views on an English Parliament. He writes...
My view is that all of us elected to the Westminster Parliament for English constituencies should perform a dual role. We should work with colleagues from Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland on Union matters for part of the week, and for the rest of the week, the Westminster Parliament itself should be the English Parliament, where we, English representatives, settle all the matters that are devolved Scotland ourselves at Westminster, without the help or interference of our colleagues from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The English Parliament at Westminster would therefore create a much more fair and balanced United Kingdom.
Quite right. Now all we have to do is convince the rest of the Tory Party...
Interesting ideas from John Deadwood. Logically then we have the idea that the (few) westminster MPs for the other home countries displace the AMs or whatever in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow too? If not why not? Why not regional government Dale? Presumably you believe in that?
ReplyDelete"Regional" how, chris p? The EU nomenklatura want the country formerly known as Britain to be identified as 'regions' of the EUSSR.
ReplyDeletePlus - does anyone think Blair would not have been held to account, in the spotlight, were it not for bloggers?
ReplyDeleteThe Telegraph and The Times have been frit for 10 years.
It's bloggers wot dun it!
The policy should be to reverse devolution, though with funding arrangements revised to end the subsidisation of the Scots. Colonies are supposed to provide wealth, not drain it away!
ReplyDeleteI might agree if the salaries and other bung we pay to the celtic representatives was reduced in proportion to the reduction in their working hours; they would, after all, become part time workers under your system. Or are you trying to bump the salries etc of the English MP's? That would go down well, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteSince this is unlikely to happen I remain convinced that the only solution to the arse of a constitutional setup bequeathed us by Swiss Tony is an independent federal United Kingdom with four constituent home nations. Each of which would be responsible for its own internal affairs but subordinate to Westminster in matters of Union-wide importance.
Or alternatively, John Redwood could go and help the Senedd in Cardiff.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he could teach them which finger to use for voting purposes...
P.S. Did you know that the Welsh for the Westminster Parliament is 'San Steffan' [Saint Stephen]. You do now!
After 3 - 'Good King Wenceslas looked out..
Hmmm..John Redwood has something ...'Not of this world' about him.
ReplyDeleteHis ideas are interesting, but if implemented would have some snags.
For example, there is enough confusion over Peter Hain's role in Northern Ireland, Wales and England already.
If JR's ideas were introduced no one would have a clue what he was doing.
But maybe that might an idea..
This process will ultimately be driven by the results of the May elections and the independent will of the Scottish electorate. So it is time that the rest of us did some proactive thinking about the kind of legislature that makes sense for the UK. We already have a surfeit of legislators being fed, watered and housed at the taxpayer's expense for our national and regional assemblies/parliaments. What is needed at this stage is a proper look at a governance structure which is rationalised, politically democratic and efficient, Half-reforms of existing structures are just not going to cut the mustard, let alone butter parsnips. We have to start from first principles, beginning with a Bill of Rights that spells out what we, as citizens, are entitled to have in terms of civic and legal protections, and expand out from there to develop a legislative model that reflects this. A series of devolved parliaments with a "senate" representing the union and dealing with union issues may be one option. But putting sticking plasters over the present mess is not, in my opinion, a workable solution.
ReplyDeleteI will leave to other, wiser heads an issue raised in earlier postings - how you define nationality in this context, which has major ramifications for entitlements and benefits.
I would sincerely like to take this opportunity to thank the hard working Scottish and Welsh MPs for their help and support to English MPs when deciding how to spend the taxes of hard-workng English constituents.
ReplyDeleteIain (and John),
ReplyDeleteA huge number of people in England support this, and making it Tory policy would surely appeal to some of those floating voters who feel dissillusioned with the big parties. It seems to be a no-brainer to me.
And with that, the end of the Union moved one step closer!!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the lack of fairness in governement is the price the English have to pay to keep the Union. GB would be much worse off without it.
No? Really? Scrolling down we can see that this is really old news, that John Deadwood has a blog.
ReplyDeleteEngland for the English, that really is a novel idea!
Getting politicians to work for half a week, would be a good idea. Getting them to work for a whole week would be even better.
The Deadwood Stage is coming around the bend, with three wheels on my wagon...
Iain - What if you feel the UK has different priorities than England?
ReplyDeleteShouldn't you have the opportunity to vote for both?
People clearly want to vote differently for different instituions (look at the high level of UKIP support at the Euro Elections). Should we really be artificially narrowing people's choices?
Iain,
ReplyDeleteYou first posted this proposal a few months ago I think - at the time I thought it was a really good idea.
I'd go further - I'd abolish the seperate AM/MSPs used in Wales and Scotland and form their assemblies from the MPs that are elected for those countries.
wibble:
ReplyDeleteYes, I was just about to say the same thing. So this is sadly a "me too".
To maintain a symmetric system, the welsh and scottish parliaments should be abolished and the existing westminster MPs should replace them. They could continue to use the new assembly buildings for the purposes of government. This would also bring them into line with a Northern Ireland assembly.
The threat to the Union comes from unequal treatment, not regional government as such.
Monday to Wednesday we have a Labour PM government running Britain, Thursday & Friday they get replaced by Tories (you hope) running England. While it allows the Tories more power than they expect & manages to avoid facing the question of PR I don't think it is very practical. Since the Tories got the most votes in England but Labour have many more seats I doubt if it would satisfy anybody anyway.
ReplyDeleteIf you are seriously looking for a solution I respectfully suggest a separate English Assembly (or assemblies) within a federal system with a written constitution would be required.
Traitor Deadwood's ideas are similar to my own on this issue.
ReplyDeleteNot that piece of filth Jail house Lawyer here . Refer to Guido for further information on him.Try to ignore him.Very funny Deadwood HA HA.The stink of you nauseates me Jailhouse and everyone shoud know what you are.
ReplyDeleteIain I know you are for an English Parliament. I think we would all agree that the current dispensation is not sustainable. I don`t understand what you have agianst simply having English votes . Same thing but cheaper and the last thing we need are more votes which actually prevent effecticve democracy( I know it sounds silly)
have you spelt out your reasoning I `d be interested to know .
good that John R and IDS have emerged from the shadows (no pun intended) recently to shore up Cameron's rightwing...
ReplyDeleteIf John R and IDS stay prominent, Cameron's very well placed to address the drifters who get upset by Cameron's Polly Tonybee word play.
new maniac: I suspect it is your own halitosis or you have your nose to close to your arse.
ReplyDeleteneil craig: Along the same lines. Bring back the Kingdom of Elmet as the assembly for Yorkshire.
I do agree with an English Parliament but Redwood's ideas seem convuluted in practice. Perhaps this is where we reform Parliament as a Federal legislature.
ReplyDelete