Thursday, March 31, 2011

A bandwagon is starting to roll? And taxi for Gregory Campbell please.

Following John Redwood's revelation the other day, this from the Monmouth Conservative MP (and as staunch a Unionist MP as you'll find in the UK), David Davies:
Mr Davies said: “As a proud Welshman and a unionist we cannot possibly have a situation where we as Welsh MPs are telling the English what to do with their health service and education and they can’t have any say over what goes on in Wales. Surely the answer for all unionists, all across the United Kingdom, is to give the English their own parliament with similar powers to the Welsh and Scottish parliaments and have some kind of federal structure dealing with everything else that matters to the United Kingdom?”
And there was more:
But London Tory MP Mark Field told him: "There is one leg, and rather an important leg, of the United Kingdom, that feels under-represented and unloved, which is one of the reasons this West Lothian question is becoming more high profile in England."
And more:
Totnes Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said there was a great feeling of unfairness within English constituencies. "We feel under-represented but equally we feel over-taxed and we wonder how it is we can be subsidising university education for Scottish pupils and how we can be subsidising free prescription charges."
And more:
The Constitutional Affairs Minister, Mark Harper, who is Tory MP for the Forest of Dean, said: "The English-Welsh border has become more of a border, more of a real barrier, since devolution, than it was beforehand. That is certainly the experience of my constituents."
I've previously said that the growth of an anti-Conservative and, by extension, anti-London, tendency within Scottish and Welsh Labour could start to pull that party in narrow, regionalist directions;  it seems now that also many of the English Conservatives are looking to "federalise" the supremacy of Westminster out of existence. How they propose to do that whilst strengthening the Union has not been satisfactorily explained.

And the sole Northern Irish contribution from Gregory Campbell wasn't his finest hour in the House:
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the United Kingdom's cohesion and unity might be helped just a little if the Prime Minister made more visits to the countries of the UK-Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? He has not been to Northern Ireland since the general election.
Errr... who's that bloke then standing beside Owen Paterson?  Top-class research there Gregory.

And while you sort that out, you should also get cracking on alternatives to the English Parliament and "English Votes for English Measures" if you genuinely think they would weaken the Union because The West Lothian Question and the corresponding English resentment aren't going to disappear anytime soon- there needs to be an urgent Unionist solution to both problems.

2 comments:

JoolsB said...

If giving England the same as the rest of the UK, ie. it's own parliament weakens the union then so be it. Why should England be denied it's own voice just to please the other members of this lop-sided union? From where I'm sitting, it's by denying England it's own parliament which will break up the so called union. England does not want an alternative to an English parliament thank you. Nor does it want to be broken up into regions as those on the left have tried to do to suit their own political advantage. If Scotland, Wales & NI can have their own parliament then why should England be denied one. Either that or the devolved nations give up theirs - no, thought not.

O'Neill said...

Either that or the devolved nations give up theirs - no, thought not.

Well, that would be my favoured solution.