English votes (part 2)

With a resigned ear, I heard the obvious protestations from Labour MPs about Malcolm Rifkind's plan for an English Grand Committee of only English MPs voting on English matters. It was to be expected that out would trot the 'This will lead to the break up of the UK' arguments. I'm not saying that it isn't true, it very well may lead to the break up of the UK.

This Government has systematically changed the constitution and put in half-thought out plans without looking for far reaching consequences. The English Grand Committee or an English Parliament was the natural consequence of devolution, and to deny that is to deny common sense. The electorate will look at the unfairness of the current system and want an answer. So as I said in my previous post, once the genie is out of the bottle it's hard to put it back in.

Maybe it is time to rethink the post devolution settlement. Several options exist which would provide fairness to the whole UK. One option would be to revert to the pre-devolution UK, although I don't think this would be acceptable now. Another would be to have five parliaments, Scottish, English, Welsh, N. Irish and the UK parliament. Finally, we could abolish the Scottish Parliament and Welsh assembly and have four Grand Committees using the current MPs to vote on matters regarding their constituency.

This matter will need resolving one way or another.

Squiffy.