The West Lothian Question?
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  The West Lothian Question?
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Question: What is the best solution?
#1
Carry on with status quo
 
#2
Form English Parliament
 
#3
Form Regional Assemblies
 
#4
English votes on English Laws
 
#5
Other
 
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Total Voters: 26

Author Topic: The West Lothian Question?  (Read 714 times)
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CrabCake
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« on: September 19, 2014, 02:50:21 PM »

As devo-max looms, the West Lothian Question has never seemed so pertinent. What would you chose as a solution?

If I was to personally rank these choices it would be:

1) Regional Assemblies (preferably not the current Frankenstein regions though)

2) Preventing Scots and Welsh votes on English Law (Rifkind had a reasonable way of implementing this, that I can go into if anyone wants)

3) Head in the sand

4) English Parliament (literally the worst)
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Cassius
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« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2014, 03:01:28 PM »
« Edited: September 19, 2014, 03:04:48 PM by Senator Cassius »

I'm inclined to go for English votes on English laws, although that does raise the potentially thorny question of what happens when the opposition party has a majority of seats in England. Ideally of course, I'd like to see the frippery that is the Welsh Assembly and the London Assembly abolished post-haste, and for local councils to be granted more powers (although that can only be done when the byzantine mess that is local government in the UK is sorted out). Unfortunately, this is very unlikely to happen.
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politicus
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« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2014, 03:16:25 PM »
« Edited: September 19, 2014, 08:41:52 PM by politicus »

As a Dane I always wonder why this is so hard, because we have solved this quite easily.

We too have a conglomerate state with a common parliament where the vast majority (98%) of the population lives in the biggest unit - which doesn't have a separate parliament, while two smaller countries have their own. Our WLQ (which is relevant in close votes) is simply solved with Greenlandic and Faroese MPs not voting on bills that are only relevant for Denmark. This is done by tradition and mutual consensus (so not part of our written constitution), but is a well established custom that everyone follows. Such an informal and pragmatic arrangement would seem to be very British.

So since you have an unwritten constitution based on custom and tradition, is it not possible to simply agree that Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish MPs don't vote on English bills and establish this as a constitutional custom?  

(There are of course some important differences: England has about 85% of your population, so its less dominant than Denmark in its state = possibility for a non-"main country" majority in parliament, and the size of the countries involved is much larger, but the fundamentals are the same)
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2014, 03:22:27 PM »

Objectively Regional Assemblies or even an English Parliament, but pragmatically I'm fine with the status quo as it benefits the left.
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« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2014, 03:42:10 PM »

Regional assemblies. The UK should go federalist.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2014, 07:24:02 PM »

While in theory Regional Assemblies might be the best answer, it's clear that there's no support for that.  So why not simply devolve more powers upon the existing counties? (Tho how to deal with the metropolitan boroughs and the existing non-county unitary authorities would be a detail to be decided upon.)
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andrew_c
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« Reply #6 on: September 19, 2014, 08:07:51 PM »

A Federal UK would be the best way to solve the West Lothian Question.  Regional Assemblies should be formed, and they should be given as much power as Canadian provinces or American states.

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politicus
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« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2014, 08:33:40 PM »
« Edited: September 19, 2014, 08:35:25 PM by politicus »

I'm inclined to go for English votes on English laws, although that does raise the potentially thorny question of what happens when the opposition party has a majority of seats in England.

The biggest problem with ELOEV in Britain is that it is ill suited to a two party system - and therefore FPTP. If you go by English votes on English laws the government needs a majority in both the UK and England. If one party doesn't get it, then there needs to be a coalition or its gridlock. EVOEL works better with PR and a multiparty system where you normally relatively easy could form coalitions with both a UK and an England majority.
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DC Al Fine
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« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2014, 08:50:09 PM »

A Federal UK would be the best way to solve the West Lothian Question.  Regional Assemblies should be formed, and they should be given as much power as Canadian provinces or American states.

This. Create a Midlands Assembly, Yorkshire Assembly etc.
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YL
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« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2014, 04:33:16 AM »

Regional assemblies, though not necessarily based on the current regional boundaries.  That both answers the WLQ and does something to deal with the excessive centralisation in England.

"English votes for English laws" is superficially attractive but has the potential to be a can of worms when one party controls England and another the UK as a whole.  Also, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different levels of devolution, so sometimes you'd need to include Welsh MPs and sometimes not.

By the way, the actual precedent in the UK constitution (from Northern Ireland 1922-1972) is to reduce the number of MPs from the devolved region: NI in that period only had 12 MPs but would probably have been entitled to 17 or so if it hadn't had the Stormont parliament.
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SPC
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« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2014, 12:45:37 AM »

English independence
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« Reply #11 on: September 24, 2014, 04:49:44 AM »

English votes on English laws, along with counties getting some of their powers back/more of them, as Cassius said. Although I wouldn't mind regional assemblies, on the condition that Westminster's powers were weakened accordingly.
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