The England Question

Paul Murphy MP (Lab, Torfaen) writes on Wales Home about the "English problem". That being, they lack some form of devolution settlement. Vast swathes of "UK" policy are now exclusively English, especially since the last strings tying Wales to the apron, with regard devolved matters, were cut in March.

"English votes for English matters" doesn't satisfy Paul. I think he is right in that respect. It's the quickest and cheapest way to deal with it, but there are all sorts of scenarios that would make it a complete dogs dinner.

For example, Labour could be in government at UK level relying wholly on Labour MPs from Scotland and Wales, but England could be overwhelmingly Conservative. Who would have the right to deal with bread and butter English-only matters like health and education? Who would run UK departments in this scenario? Would there be two executives in the Commons, a Prime Minister of the UK from Labour and a First Minister for England from the Conservatives swapping seats depending on what day it is?

There is a proposal for so-called "double majority" voting, where laws have to be passed by both the Commons at large and a majority of English MP's. This might go some way to solving the problem, but I doubt it would be satisfactory.

Then there's "EnglandandWales". Things like criminal justice, water and energy for example. Would there again be another Prime Minister for England and Wales matters? Based on how many seats the respective parties have on an Anglo-Welsh basis? Or would it be treated as an England-only matter, without the devolution of criminal justice etc. to Wales? I doubt any Conservative "First Minister" in England would want to give up one of the policy areas they are most associated with. The solution here is simply to devolve such matters to Wales. But would that require another referendum?

A devolved English Parliament? "Break-up of the Union".....you can here the cries now.

The problem is that England IS the Union. England is an elephant, Scotland is a Scottish terrier, Wales is a duck and Northern Ireland is a mouse caught in the teeth of a very ill-looking Celtic Tiger. It's a lop-sided Union and one of the reasons I believe it's becoming unworkable in its current unitary form.

Would an all-England Parliament be satisfied with the kinds of powers the devolved administrations currently have? It wouldn't have any sort of international clout. It wouldn't have any major tax-varying powers and it would spend most of it's time micromanaging a budget given to them by the UK Government. A budget that could actually dwarf the UK Government's once devolved and reserved matters are separated. That's another problem.

Where would it be based? How many elected members would it have (it would need to be several hundred surely)? What voting system would it use? All matters for the English people to decide of course, but not without some pain along the way I'd imagine.

The best solution, regarding English devolution in my view, would be devolved regional assemblies for England & Cornwall. Each with a nice manageable population of 5-10million (and Cornwall significantly less). Each of the them would be similar to the Scottish Parliament and the UK can move towards a proper federal system along the lines of Germany. However this raises even more problems.

Firstly regional devolution has been rejected once before, by the North East of England in 2004.

Secondly, England is a proud and historically united nation. Any moves to "regionalise" England would be met with fierce resistance, especially if the EU tin-foil-hatters run wild with it. It's the kind of thing that should be done within sovereign nations, but not to a nation within a nation-state (if that makes any sense). Diluting a national identity in this way is storing problems for the future.

Though you could point to Spain as an example where this has happened successfully. Castile is divided into several autonomous regions.

Last but not least. There's independence for all the constituent nations of the UK. And we all lived happily ever after. Right?

Obviously from a nationalist perspective, I would go with "English votes for English laws" in its rawest form (without double majority). It would be chaos. It would make Westminster look bad, borderline incompetent and could make the UK ungovernable in a Belgian sense.

However the pragmatist in me would point towards an English devolution settlement, preferably regional, as it is most workable (in theory).

Ultimately (and much more importantly) how devolution emerges and evolves in England is a matter for our English friends to decide. And decide alone.