There have been rumblings for a while about the inbalance in the UK political system where MPs from Wales and Scotland can decide legislation only applying to England. There was also the absurd example of Scottish MP John Reid, representing a Scottish constituency, but yet being Secretary of State for Health but without powers over health policy in Scotland (it’s devolved). These are examples of the so-called West Lothian Question – see this page from Wikipedia for a full explanation.
Anyway, today I happened to stumble across the Campaign for an English Parliament – see their site here. Seems that it is mainly run by Conservative Party sympathisers, and their motivation seems to be bang-the-drum Englishness, rather than the need for the UK to have a sensible and organised political system. Even so, the fact that regional governance is even still up for debate in the UK is to be welcomed… Federalism for the UK is really the solution, but sadly that concept is even further away than federalism for the EU!
No problem Jon. We do have a lot of Conservative supporters but I’d say that we had a disproportionately large number of Lib Dem supporters. The Lib Dems are the party that consult us more, and whose MPs are more likely to help or consult us – we even particiate in their focus groups on constitutional issues. The Tories are generally sympathetic but stand-offish although they do invite us to their ‘think-tanks’. Labour just ignore.
The national council has members of all three main parties.
Regions would be OK as long as they came under the jurisdiction of an English parliament. England deserves no less than any other nation.
I don’t see why there cannot be an English parliament with MPs dual-mandated to oversee regional bodies. Having said that I would scrap Prescott’s white-elephants and return democracy to local level.
My apologies – I came across the campaign thanks to debates about what David Cameron would do about the question of an English Parliament if he was elected Tory leader, and have not heard of any significant discussion of this issue in either of the other 2 main parties.
You probably have to admit that you get more support for your campaign from people who tend to support the Tories though?
In principle, I am quite OK with the idea of an English Parliament (although some system of regions might be better).
Sorry for the confusion!
How do you come to the conclusion that we are Conservative Party sympathisers. We constantly attack the Tories for their ludicrous ‘English votes’ policy.
As far as I am concerned the only solution is a federal UK.