Should Scottish MP's be banned from voting on English issue & will Labour support it

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Should Scottish MP's be banned from voting on issues only affecting England and Wales

So with all the talk about consitution change and the West Lothian question should Scottish MP's in Westminster be banned from voting on issue that have been devolved to Scotland if they only affect Ebgland and Wales.

One key issue I remember is that Scotland abolished student fees and then Alex Salmond and the other SNP MP's voted for £9,000 in Westminster. So should they be banned from voting on issues only affecting England and Wales?

Also what should the Labour party do? they are in a very difficult positon because to oppose it would lose them English votes but to support it would remove all their Scottish MP's and would prevent them in 2015 having a majority on key issues

Reply 1

samba

6

It's a constitutional crisis, and basically a powergrab that will play into the hands of UKIP/Conservatives in most of the scenarios it could play. Unless there's some serious work done on resolution, this is going to be messy.

Reply 2

username402722

19

Labour will not support it as they do not wish to see a second class set of MPs (in their view). Federalism would be better in my view- so you'd have an English Parliament, give each of the four devolved administrations the same powers, and could have a much smaller UK parliament, say around 200 members. Regional assemblies in England seem a non-starter.

Reply 3

Mackay

17

If the issues only affect England and Wales, then it's common sense that Scottish MPs have absolutely nothing to do with voting for/against them.

Reply 4

Rakas21

21

Original post by Ace123

So with all the talk about consitution change and the West Lothian question should Scottish MP's in Westminster be banned from voting on issue that have been devolved to Scotland if they only affect Ebgland and Wales.

One key issue I remember is that Scotland abolished student fees and then Alex Salmond and the other SNP MP's voted for £9,000 in Westminster. So should they be banned from voting on issues only affecting England and Wales?

Also what should the Labour party do? they are in a very difficult positon because to oppose it would lose them English votes but to support it would remove all their Scottish MP's and would prevent them in 2015 having a majority on key issues

Given that English MP's make up 84% of parliament and I believe in a unified UK I'm going to say No on the basis that this will only encourage English rather than British nationalism although the prospect of a stronger right does appeal.

Original post by barnetlad

Labour will not support it as they do not wish to see a second class set of MPs (in their view). Federalism would be better in my view- so you'd have an English Parliament, give each of the four devolved administrations the same powers, and could have a much smaller UK parliament, say around 200 members. Regional assemblies in England seem a non-starter.

Giving regional parliaments was one of the mistakes that led to this referendum, we now have a Welsh assembly teaching the Welsh language and a Scottish government teaching Scottish rather than British history.

Power should have been devolved directly to the Scottish cities and only economic rather than anything which could foster nationalism.

A federal UK with an English parliament would see the potential for English nationalism to become more popular.

Should Scottish MP's be banned from voting on English issue & will Labour support it

Should Scottish MP's be banned from voting on issues only affecting England and Wales

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