English Votes for English Laws

You may have heard about the recent cry of "English Votes for English Laws", but do you actually know why MPs are considering bringing this into Law?  Do you know which MPs want it brought in and which MPs don't?  And is it a good or a bad idea?

You might be surprised at the answers to some of these questions. 

The whole debate has its roots in the so-called "West Lothian Queston". This was a question asked in the House of Commons in 1977 specifically about a situation where Scottish MPs could vote on Laws affecting England, but English MPS couldn't vote on Laws affecting Scotland.  

Actually it's not quite as bad as it sounds.  Since Scotland has had it's own Scottish Parliament a lot of laws have been "devolved" there.  This doesn't mean Westminster has no say or control over what happens in Scotland anymore, but it means that some things the Scots are considered able to debate and resolve themselves.  Certain legislation can now be passed in Scotland without Westminster having to bother itself being involved.  The same thing already happens with our Local and County Councils, who can manage their own affairs without involvement from the UK Government (for example in matters of setting local Council Tax).

So certain decisions taken in Scotland, that only affect Scotland, don't need to be debated in Westminster.  However there are at present 59 Scottish MPs in Westminster (out of a total of 650) who still vote on matters that affect the UK as a whole, or England on it's own (because unlike Scotland, England doesn't have a separate Parliament).  In fact it isn't really a case of England not being allowed to vote on Scottish issues, but rather that they do not normally legislate on matters that have been devolved to Scotland without first asking permission. The UK Goverment still has full veto over the Scottish Parliament, if they should ever decide to exercise it.

What this basically means is the the UK Government doesn't normally interfere in Scottish legislation  - so long as that legislation doesn't involve Defence, Currency, Foreign Affairs or National Security.  So the Scots can't vote for the removal of Trident or a change to the Pound.

However this has caused problems in the past.  Most notably in January 2004 when the UK Parliament voted to increase Top-Up Fees for University students.  This legislation did not affect Scottish students attending Scottish Universities, as that matter had already been legislated in the Scottish Parliament (the fees were abolished).  However the Bill was passed by a majority of 5...which included 46 Scottish MPs.  Admittedly this was a Labour Government, and so the Scottish Labour MPs were voting in line with their Party, but the fact remains that the legislation did not apply in Scotland, so if Scottish MPs had not been allowed to vote, the Bill would not have passed. Similar examples (the vote on Foundation Hospitals in November 2003) have reinforced this problem in inequality and the need to address the "West Lothian Question."

So in 2015, we find the Conservatives currently making plans for the beginnings of a solution to this problem, and they want to implement it before (or in time for) the next General Election.  Although they are not proposing a straight ban on Scottish MPs voting on English issues, they are proposing that English MPs will have a veto to prevent Scottish MPs from overriding the wishes of English voters.

Scottish MPs will still be allowed to debate Bills in Parliament, and vote on them, but the process of putting a Bill together will be restricted solely to English MPs.  Just to make this clear, English also means not Scottish, not Welsh, and not Northern Irish.

Is this a good idea?  Well, possibly not if you vote Labour.

Let's look again at those 59 Scottish MPs who currently legislate on English issues.  1 of them is Independent, 1 of them is Conservative, 6 are SNP, 11 are Lib Dem...the rest are Labour.

Certain Tory backbenchers want to go the whole hog, with no voting from non-English MPs allowed on English-only issues, and in the event of a Conservative majority at the next Election, it's easy to see this eventually might happen.

If it does, then any Laws passed that affect only England may well be passed by a majority of Conservative MPs.  So far I've only mentioned Scottish MPs, but out of 40 Welsh members of the UK Parliament, only 8 are Conservative, while 26 are Labour (we can safely ignore Northern Ireland as they have no Lib Dem, Labour or Tory MPs).  Since this would mean that 66 Labour MPs would not be allowed to vote (10%) but only 9 Conservatives (1.3%), even in the event of a Labour Government we could still see Bills passing or failing solely down to a Conservative voting majority.

"England for the English" might just translate into "England for the Tories".