West Lothian Question

[English assassin]

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

Umm, come on mate, the fact that the UK parliament (which contains MPs for England but also scotland wales and NI) voted to establish the Scottish Parliament cannot really be used as an example justifying scottish MPs voting on matters relating only to England. Apart from anything else the westminster vote was the only way to establish the Scottish parliament.

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 still relate to Scotland.

Because I happened to know about the HE bill as I had to advise on it at the time, and I don't know about the others and haven't got time to look them up. "Relate to" Scotland isn't the point though, it would have to be "relate EXCLUSIVELY" to Scotland. No one is saying the UK parliament legislating for the whole of the UK raises a West Lothian question (or a west Sussex question as I suppose it would be here)

Here's a thing for you, say tomorrow the devolution acts are repealed.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

.

Sure, sure, and by exactly the same argument we could repeal the Statute of Westminster 1931 and start legislating for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Eire and Newfoundland again. I know the argument exists, and I know on one view it is technically correct legally (though there are other views), its just in the real world it won't work. The basic problem with the answer is the WLQ isn't a legal question, its political question.

And now, the pedantry:

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?

Because its not true, I'm afraid. The GLA has no legislative power. It doesn't even have much executive power. In effect its a rather puny county council. But if it WAS true I would be perfectly happy to ask the West Hampstead question just the same as we ask the West Lothian question.

Westminster, with its overdominance of English MPs.

59 Scottish MPs, pop 5.078m, 1 MP per 86,000 population

528 English seats, pop 50.1m, 1 MP per 94,900 population.