England needs a pledge too
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England needs a pledge too

The leaders of the UK’s three main political parties have signed a pledge guaranteeing extra powers for the Scottish parliament if the country votes against independence at a referendum on Thursday. But that leaves people in England facing the prospect of even more decisions being taken by politicians that do not represent them. The Westminster elite should provide the English with some guarantees of their own.

For all the blame and bile aimed down south by many in the Scottish independence movement, it is the English that got the raw end of the devolution deal. The New Labour years are littered with examples of unpopular policies being driven through parliament only by the weight of Scottish MPs — even though they would only apply in English constituencies.

That cannot go on.

It was already a democratic deficit. It will only become more so if the Scottish parliament is given greater powers, meaning Scots politicians in Westminster will have even more to vote on that will only affect English constituents. The same is true if more powers are devolved to Northern Ireland and Wales.

From a cynically political view, the Conservatives — the senior party in the UK government — are already panicking about the threat from the anti-Europe UK Independence Party. Its leader Nigel Farage will be rubbing his hands — assuming he can put down his fag and pint for a few minutes — at the thought of having another oppressor from a not so distant land to add to his Brussels bogeyman.

If, as promised, Scotland keeps its share of funding under the Barnett formula (the method of distributing public funds to the constituent nations of the UK) and enjoy increased powers, that is only going to make more Conservative backbenchers consider a switch to UKIP.

The Westminster leaders are right to sign the pledge guaranteeing extra powers for Scotland if it votes to remain in the Union, but they should also sign a pledge for England, that Scottish MPs will no longer have a say over purely English matters. If it stays together after Thursday’s vote, the UK seems set for something akin to federalism, but that can only work if everyone is on board.

The new pledge also guarantees that the Scottish parliament will be forever enshrined in the British constitution, rather than its current status of only existing as long as Westminster wills it.

That takes care of one of the loose ends of the first devolution stage of the late 1990s. This is the right time to sort out the other major loose end, that of MPs for regions with devolved powers voting on English-only policies.

That may well mean a radical overhaul to Westminster, with London perhaps the seat of a senate that represents individual countries or regions within the UK, while devolved issues take place in their respective parliaments. Other options are on the table. 

But what must be taken off the table once and for all is what is known as the West Lothian question, but should really have been called the English question.

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