Sunday 4 February 2007

An English Parliament?

My MP writes:

...there is no question of decisions in England being dominated by members from other parts of the UK. Even if Scottish, Welsh and Irish MPs all voted the same way on an issue, they would still need 200 MPs from England to win the day.

But what about, hypothetically of course, if there was a majority of English MPs against a particular measure and the Scots, Welsh or Irish MPs voted in a way that swung the vote against the majority of English MPs?

She also says that:

...it would be unworkable to have a system where MPs representing Scottish constituencies could not vote on English legislation

There is only one possible solution, then. An extra layer of politicians in an English Parliament. Presumably then Westminster would become a federal Parliament, only deciding on defence and border policy while all the day-to-day running of the countries would be in the respective devolved Parliaments...

I rather prefer John Redwood's idea.

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