Well, now it is out. A most confusing and complicated solution to the so called West Lothian Question. Apart from the fact that London MP's will be unable to vote on some legislation given there is devolution of some things relevant to London, it’s a real mixed up basket of thinking. Which from Ken Clarke, I find a bit of a surprise.
There is however one serious flaw in Clarke's proposals and that is he only tackles half the problem. For example, in the UK Cabinet, we have around the table all the Great Offices of state which are UK wide. And that is entirely correct. But we also have England only offices such as Health and Education to name but two who sit at the UK table.
So as well as banning Scots voting on English issues, what we should do is not have these England only offices at the UK Cabinet table otherwise, quite rightly, Scots will ask why they are at UK cabinet given they do not represent the UK. Instead, bring in an English Secretary of State to whom all these offices would report. We had it that way in Scotland until Devolution. The whole of Scotland's interests were represented at Cabinet level by one person. And it worked. It was truly joined up government. And it saved a fortune in costs. If it was good enough for us Scots for 100s of years, then it’s good enough for England now. That would bring a really fair settlement.
So a fair settlement with English MPs only on English issues and a Secretary of State for England who can sit along side other Secretaries of State for Scotland NI and Wales would be the perfect solution to the West Lothian Question.
But the real answer is give England its own parliament to deal with England only issues and let the UK parliament take care of UK wide issues.
I think the English Parliament would look good in York!
Interestingly, it was not Tam Dayell who coined the phrase "West Lothian Question". That was none other than Enoch Powell who, in response to Tam Dalyell's speech on the subject said: "We have finally grasped what the Honourable Member for West Lothian is getting at, let us call it the West Lothian Question."
