Anthony Barnett (London, OK): There was an excellent letter in the Guardian yesterday, short, cogent and reprod here in full:
The Tories are about to propose an English grand committee in the House of Commons, a variant on their earlier idea of banning Scottish MPs from voting on English matters (Salmond's solid start, October 29). This is riddled with practical difficulties and fails either to provide England with an executive like that of the other three nations of the UK, or to address the underlying problem, just as the old Scottish grand committee failed. The Westminster parliament currently has two mutually incompatible roles, as a federal parliament for the whole of the UK on non-devolved subjects such as foreign affairs, and simultaneously as a parliament for England on everything. The UK government has the same contradictory double role. There is only one solution: a parliament and government for England, the only one of the UK's four nations still without either, and (eventually) full devolution of all domestic affairs to the four parliaments and governments, making Westminster a fully fledged federal parliament and government dealing with all non-devolved and shared subjects.
Here is Gordon Brown's golden opportunity to outflank the Tories, resolve the West Lothian question, make sense of the second chamber (a federal senate), satisfy Scottish aspirations for more devolution, rescue the union of the four nations by putting them in a durable democratic relationship, and push power further down to local people, as well as build a national consensus on a new long-term constitutional settlement for Britain.
Brian Barder
London
What is so good about it is that it sets out how the ye olde political system is missing the point yet again (Lib-Dems included, it seems). What has happened re the EU for half a century is now happening with Scotland, Wales and devolution. The established parliamentary order tried to catch up with what has happened but by the time it does so, what has happened has moved on! In this case, the key point the writer makes is that a 'Grand Committee' may seem to solve the problem for MPs. So what? For the public in England Scotland now has an executive that defends its interests and we don't. This is now the grievance. Not which MPs vote for what.
UPDATE: You can read a fuller summary of Brian's views on his website here.
