West Lothian Question

[Rank Bajin]

Only a constitutional lawyer could be remotely persauded by that argument. Wait, I AM a constitutional lawyer. The argument is bollocks. Its the same point that sometimes excites first year law students when they work out that in strict constitutional theory parliament could revoke the Acts giving independence to New Zealand and start passing laws for New Zealand. To which the only sensible reply is, yeah, you could try... In plain English the argument may be correct as a legal technicality but it has no political reality.

Take it up with New Labour, Mr Constitutional Lawyer. As far as I aware Westminster is still the "mother parliament" of Scotland - devolution has not removed its sovereignty or its precedence over Scotland. If they want, Westminster can even abolish the Scottish Parliament tomorrow.

The funny thing, that is actually very interesting to note, is that London also has devolved power like Scotland and Wales - a fact that many English people tend to forget. I wonder why?

No, wait. The first argument was that the Scottish Parliament did not take away powers from Westminster. Now its all OK because they do have powers, but give some of the powers back by "convention"? First, if so much as one matter is retained the WLQ is still live. Second, conventions, especially new and unclear ones, can be undone and are not a solid basis for an issue like the democratic representation of the people.

What's more, and I haven't checked them all, the examples given are not impressive. For instance they claim that "almost" third of the Higher Education Act 2004 applies to Scotland. First and pedantically, its 15 out of 55 sections and none of the seven schedules. That's not almost a third even by length. Second, the sections that apply are the creation of the Arts and Humanities Research Board (which was so unremarkable I don't think it was even debated), a section dealing with information on student support, and a few technical sections relating to commencement etc. Not exactly controversial compared to the provisions on top up fees and fair access schemes.

Was that it? If that's the best they can do the WLQ is more serious than I thought.

O.K. I take your point about the Education Act 2004. Even if that a tiny, tiny portion of the issues of the Education Act 2004 did in fact relate to Scotland, it still did relate to Scotland. The Scottish MPs still voted on an issue that did concern Scotland, small as it may seem.

Why do you discount the other examples of Acts stated? Is it just because in your mind, they are not as 'controversial' as the others? The passed Acts listed above, 'impressive' or not, do stillrelate to Scotland.

And the Acts still needed to be carried through via the votes of English MPs.

Sorry, but my point still stands that English MPs can and do vote on issues that directly relate to Scotland. So what is your point?

Is there a post 1997 example of English MPs voting on a matter that affected only Scotland?

Since you obviously have ignored most the other examples above. I might as well bring up one you missed. By far the most important.

Did you hear of the Scotland Act 1998? (It was mentioned in the top paragraph in the article above, by the way).

When it was passed, over 350 English MP's voted for it. This, in fact, was the Act which gave Scotland Devolution, the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive.

Yes. It was on backs of English MPs that the Scottish Parliament even exists in the first place. And the point that needs to be stressed is that the Parliament still exists at the pleasure of Westminster, with its overdominance of English MPs.

Here's a thing for you, say tomorrow the devolution acts are repealed. After all this could happen, as the Scottish Parliament is really just an offshoot of the UK one, with no constitutional basis at all.

Like when these devolution acts were passed in the first place - they depended on the votes of English MP's. If they were to be repealed they would once again depend on the votes of English MP's. A little reverse West Lothian Question, there for you.

If you are interested check the link below. I found it very interesting.

http://www.thesharpener.net/?p=72#comments