Davis rules out English Parliament

David Davis has ruled out an English Parliament if he gets into power.

Despite co-sponsoring a bill for an English Parliament a few years ago, he now supports the English Votes on English Matters farce that the Tories have come up with.

The reason? You've guessed it - "My view is that we should have an English vote - otherwise we would have to go to the expense of another set of MPs."

How do the Tories hope to win an election when they peddle rubbish like this?

With an English Parliament there would be need for 650 MP's in Westminster so why should there be any extra expense or "another" set of MP's?

And English Votes on English Matters, what a farce. The Speaker of the House (who is currently Scottish) will decide whether a bill (which is proposed by the British government) is an English bill or not. If it affects Scotland or Wales it won't be an English bill. If it costs money then it will reduce the amount left in the pot for the block grants to Scotland and Wales. Consequently, any bill that will cost money will be debated by Scottish and Welsh MP's - nothing will change.

English Votes on English Matters will do nothing to solve the West Lothian Question. Even if the Tories somehow managed to work EVoEM in such a way as to genuinely allow only English MP's to vote on English bills, it doesn't address the political imbalance left behind with the Scottish and Welsh devolution settlements.

In Scotland they propose their own bills and debate them in their own Parliament.

In Wales they propose their own bills and the British government passes them on behalf of the Welsh Assembly.

In England, even under EVoEM, bills would be proposed by the British government, debated by English members of the British Parliament and then passed by the British Parliament.

I certainly won't even give the Tories a second look now.

UPDATE:
Gareth has an excellent and comprehensive point by point breakdown of why EVoEM won't work.

See Also:
Campaign for an English Parliament
An Englishman's Castle
GavPOLITICS
The England Project