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# Will a Tory landslide solve the English question?
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/will-a-tory-landslide-solve-the-english-question/
- Published: 2008-05-31T16:05:12.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:40:39.000Z
- Author: Tom Griffin
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:41

**Tom Griffin (London:** [**The Green Ribbon**](http://www.tomgriffin.org/?ref=opendemocracy.net)**)** Some of the proceedings from last week's Inside Devolution 2008 conference at the Constitution Unit are now [available online](http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/events/insidedevolution08.htm?ref=opendemocracy.net).

They included a fascinating roundtable discussion on the performance of the devolved governments over the past year: Iain MacWhirter, Martin Shipton, and Robin Wilson provided insightful analyses of the political situation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively. ([Audio here](http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/files/events/2008/one%5Fyear%5Fon.mp3?ref=opendemocracy.net))

But perhaps the most interesting contribution came from Peter Riddell, on the impact of devolution on Westminster and on the resurgent Tories in particular.

*We've yet to see the Tory proposals on addressing Scotland. I'm sure there'll be talk of a further reduction in seats. I think they're very wary of now of English votes for English laws, because they see the practical difficulties of doing it. I think it's more likely to be a version of the Rifkind formula, of a grand committee*.

He went on to suggest that a Conservative Government may not have to answer the English question at all:  

*If there is a meltdown for Labour, curiously the pressure on Cameron to do anything on the legislative side on Scotland reduces. If he's got a clear majority, he doesn't have to worry about it. It's a notional problem. After all, the whole point of the English issue is only if there's a Labour minority government relying on Scottish MPs to carry through legislation. It doesn't arise if you've got a Conservative government.*