Field of Dreams

Another Conservative proposal on solving the West Lothian Question is that of Mark Field, MP for the Cities of London and Westminster.

His proposal is a simple federal system. Each country has its own Parliament handling devolved issues. In this case, the English Parliament would be the House of Commons.

The House of Lords would be scrapped.

Then each parliament sends representatives to the UK Parliament to discuss the non-devolved issues; for instance defence and foreign policy.

These representatives meet in the old House of Lords.

Mr. Field’s proposals seem logical and sensible. However I think they would fall apart in the detail.

A Field of Dreams then?

The Commons has been slow to change the House of Lords. I do not think that the House of Lords is in danger of being abolished any time soon.

If the Commons (the new English Parliament) has no second chamber than its EMPs must be prepared to do more work at committee level to scutinize the proposed legislation, as the Scottish Parliament already does.

If the new House of Lords (the new UK Parliament) receives EMPs from the English Parliament, MSPs from Scotland, and AMs from Wales and Northern Ireland – won’t these members be needed by their own Parliaments and parties in their own parliament? It may be a simple matter of walking for the EMPs but those members outwith England are at a disadvantage.

Who would be Prime Minister of the UK in such a setup? How many members does each country get to send?

These and many more details would need to be addressed for Mr. Field’s plans to be accepted. Whilst each detail could be eventually agreed on by the countries, I would be surprised if the political will is there for this Field of Dreams to ever materialise.

The Kent Invent

In the light of Ken Clarke’s English Pauses for English Clauses and Malcolm Rifkind’s East Lothian Answer, I thought I would reflect on some other Conservative plans that would try and answer the West Lothian Question.

This time the proposal comes from Roger Gale, a Conservative MP for North Thanet in Kent.

As both Ken Clarke’s and Malcolm Rifkind proposals have memorable names, I feel I should give Roger Gale’s proposal such a name too.

Judging by its hitherto unfavourable reception I think it should be named the Kent Invent. Even Roger Gale himself admitted: “When I first put forward my proposals, … I was regarded as at best eccentric and more probably as plain bonkers.”

Roger Gale wants to abolish the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Then an English Parliament set up, and the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies given more powers to become Parliaments similiar to the Scottish model.

Each parliament would elect a First Minister and send two representatives to a UK senate. From these 8 senators a Prime Minister would be picked.

The UK senate would have control over macro-economic taxation, foreign and defence matters. All other matters would be devolved to their respective parliaments.

Personally I don’t see the English in particular buying this. In a UK population of around 60 million they have around 50 million people or 5/6. To reduce their UK representation to 1/4 might suit the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish but is hardly fair.

I don’t actually see the Scots buying it either. Scots – and the current Scottish Parliament – has diverged from Westminster on Trident and the War on Iraq, for example. One of the benefits that independence would bring Scotland is that we could decide on all those issues ourselves. Of course the same would be true for Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

The Kent Invent may have its drawbacks but it fully answers the West Lothian Question but its UK senate idea may prove unworkable.

At best I feel it will just be sticking plaster trying to save the Union. It would only be a temporary measure. Once the parliaments knit in, we’ve always better ripping the plaster off for full independence.