h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it a problem that Scottish MPs vote in the UK parliament determining policy for England and Wales on matters that are dealt with in Scotland by the Scottish parliament?

There does seem to be some anomaly here, but aren't the alternatives worse? There has always been different legislation for Scotland than for England and Wales in many areas. In the past both pieces were passed by the Westminster parliament, with Scottish MPs voting on the England and Wales part, which didn't really affect them, and English and Welsh MPs voting on the Scottish part which didn't really affect them. The introduction of the Scottish parliament has corrected what was by far the greater of these anomalies.

Restricting the voting rights of Scottish MPs would introduce much worse anomalies. You could have a situation where a government had a working majority only in policy areas where Westminster still rules Scotland. And if a bill contains some measures affecting Scotland, and many more affecting England and Wales, what are the voting rights to be then?

The logical solution is devolution of power to an English parliament, or regional assemblies (I prefer the latter). Much of the administration of government is already performed on this regional basis, and this would add closer democratic control to an existing regional bureaucracy.

I just addressed this in another post. It seems to me that Scotland has something similar to a state government, and so does North Ireland. It makes sense to extend that further... give each region its own regional government. That way, they're all equal. And each region would naturally send representatives to the national parliament.

The national government could then focus on national issues, and leave issues affecting only one region to that regions' local government.

I have to say, Blathers, I couldn't have put it better myself.

Westminster should become the National Parliament dealing with UK-wide issues (foreign policy, overall financial policy etc). The regional parliaments should deal with that regions policies.

Apart from anything else, this means that the Mother of All Parliaments might actually have enough seats for all it's MPs one day.

There are various anomolies. My curret MP was the one who raised the West Lothian question when devolution was first muted for Scotland.

Northern Ireland and Wales not having the same degree of devolved power as the Scottish Parliament still have question times in Westminster where answers are given which do not all go that is a devolved matter for the Scottish Parliament to answer.

However at these question times questions can be put by concerned members who not necessarily represent Northern Ireland or Wales. For some of the parties this is a good thing and sometimes the Northern Irish spokesman even has some connection with the area. Lembit Opek for the Lib Dems was educated in Norther Ireland and lives in Wales, dating their most famous weather lady. Sir Patrick Mayhew was a Northern Irish born Northern Irish secretary for the conservatives. However other people can ask questions as they have genuine concerns about these areas. Devolved regional assemblies are good but concern can still be shown for areas especially the less prosperous or accessible areas by a number of politicians as the economy in some of the remote areas needs to be looked after or else we'd all be living in London.