Dear All
In response to the West Lothian Question,
an idea has been put forward, Laws that affect England alone should no longer
be passed in the Commons without the consent of a majority of English MPs.
When someone goes to Westminster, they have
full voting rights, whether they intend to exercise that right is purely a
personal matter, but the reality unless independent, most MPs follow the party
line.
The inquiry has concluded Scottish MPs
shouldn’t be voting on English domestic matters, you could view this as a move
against the Labour Party who tends to dominate in the number of Scottish MPs
returned to Westminster.
Lib Dems have 11 MPs, the SNP 6 MPs and the
Tories have 1, in the form of David Mundell.
And you can understand up to a point, why
this is a problem, in 2004, Tony Blair pushed through tuition fees for England
even though most English MPs voted against the policy.
I think that on this issue that English MPs
could be legitimately angry, because in Scotland under devolution, Scottish
students don’t pay. In that respect, England should be the same, Students
should get ‘free’ higher education.
Like Scotland, the English system is in
need of major reform.
When Tuition fees when through, it passed
only because Scottish Labour MPs packed the lobbies in favour of the move, the
party system of being whipped!
People can be made to back the wrong policies,
especially when they could be disciplined and lose their seat.
Tony Blair was the wrong man to lead the
Labour Party, he came in hope and left a trail of misery behind him.
An independent commission, led by former
House of Commons clerk Sir William McKay, has said more needs to be done to
ensure English MPs have better control.
If this idea was adopted, a Scottish Prime
Minister such as Gordon Brown wouldn’t get a vote on his own government agenda,
how can this be right?
Quite simply it isn’t.
Should an Englishman or woman be denied the
right to vote if they represent a Scottisg seat?
Under the McKay Commission, apparently yes.
The report calls for a compromise
‘double-lock’ system, under which laws that apply in England alone are approved
first by English MPs before they go to a vote before the whole Commons, which
comprises MPs of all four nations of the UK.
I think this is a slippery slope, if the
creation of different tiers of MPS is allowed, it undermines democracy.
Equality demands each MP has the same rights
in the House of Commons, the claim that this is to ensure that MPs from other
countries are not relegated to ‘second class’ status is bogus, entirely bogus.
Everyone has a vote but we have fixed it
before hand to ensure the outcome!
In politics, there is always piecemeal,
bits added here, and bits added there, no thought what further down the line
this could mean, then a patch to fix a mistake, it hardly invokes confidence in
the system.
The new regime is designed to solve the
so-called ‘West Lothian’ question, which asks why it is that Scottish, Welsh or
Northern Irish MPs have the same right to vote at Westminster as any English MP
now that large areas of policy are devolved to national parliaments and
assemblies.
Well, I would say in reply, human rights!
Many Conservatives have called for purely
‘English votes for English laws’, with MPs from other nations barred from
voting on such issues.
They are wrong, it undermines the Union, it
undermines the House of Commons and it undermines democracy.
Democracy isn’t perfect but in the House of
Commons, we expect equal rights for equal members. If we can’t grasp that
concept there, things are worse than people think in Britain.
This idea could also make governing
impossible, which cannot be a good thing.
Sir William McKay said:
‘Surveys have shown that people in England
are unhappy about the existing arrangements, and support change. There is a
feeling that England is at a disadvantage, and that it’s not right that MPs
representing the devolved nations should be able to vote on matters affecting
England. The status quo clearly cannot be sustained. Our proposals retain the
right of a UK-wide majority to make the final decisions where they believe
UK interests or those of a part of the UK other than England should prevail.’
A Cabinet Office spokesman said:
‘We will give the report very serious
consideration before we respond.’
This report is wrong; it could end up
unworkable and a government winning an election only to find that the
opposition is in control.
The solution for Conservatives is to fix
their ‘Scottish’ problem, 1 MP at present, the collapse of their vote, number
of seats across the board and internal problems.
Second class MPs based on a geographic area they represent is entirely wrong.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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