Lesley Riddoch: Simon says he wants a devolution

Simon Hughes was slapped down for suggesting an English Parliament but maybe he’s right

IS SIMON Hughes right to (almost) call for an English Parliament? Speaking in Derby on Saturday, the senior Lib Dem said “it could be time for English devolution.” Within 24 hours he was slapped down by Nick Clegg on the Andrew Marr programme and Twitter debate was dominated by the other subjects discussed by the Lib Dem leader – a proposed “mansion tax,” benefit rebellion and demands for clarity about independence from Alex Salmond. The English Parliament idea had disappeared. This tells advocates of radical constitutional change in Britain all we need to know. The English simply aren’t up for it. Yet.

In 2004 John Prescott’s plans for English regional assemblies were effectively kyboshed after the north-east of England overwhelmingly voted no. But times have changed and so has the proposal. Now one pan-English Parliament (not a plethora of regional bodies) is being mooted and debate has a vital quality that was missing a decade back. A righteous sense of grievance. As winners in the Union game the English haven’t felt hard-done by – until now.

“We want one too” may not be the most sophisticated response to the SNP’s independence call. But it may be behind the surprise majority of English voters who supported Scottish independence in a recent ICM opinion poll.

English irritation with the Scots appears to be a stronger factor. Put bluntly, who the hell do we think we are? The Scottish tail is wagging the English dog so vigorously that Westminster is having a collective migraine. In the midst of their “own” debate about recession, austerity, coalition cuts, caring capitalism, Europhobia and the aftermath of the English riots, 50 million people are being made to focus on the desires of five million. And in opinion polls, most Scots don’t even support independence.

In such a context Simon Hughes is brave to put his head above the parapet; “People in England should use this [Scottish] referendum as an opportunity not a threat... there may be devolution to England too.”

But one wobbly voice doth not a groundswell make. Does the campaign for English devolution really have legs?

The absence of an English Parliament is of course, at the heart of the West Lothian question and the core business for the McKay Commission, set up to consider how the Commons might deal better with legislation that affects only one part of the UK – viz England.

You might ask why this is necessary. SNP and Plaid Cymru MPs already choose not to vote on domestic English issues thus creating a de facto English parliament within Westminster. The Celtic MPs who insist on voting in English debates are unionist MPs – not nationalist ones – and their voting says more about parliamentary arithmetic and anxiety about job security than any constitutional point of principle.

In 2007, then shadow foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind tried to formalise things with an English Grand Committee that would sit twice a week in Westminster. This would have left the UK’s prime minister (Gordon Brown at the time) unable to vote on his own government’s legislation. It would also have created two classes of MPs with “full-time” English MPs and Celtic “part-timers.” Odd – but then the empty Chamber is eloquent testimony to the fact that Commons attendance is currently a highly selective and part-time affair.

Intermittency is a problem for the British mindset – in democratic representation and energy production. We seem terrified of the ambiguity and (apparent) duplication needed to make democracy work. As Paddy Bort at Edinburgh University’s Centre for Governance has demonstrated, truly federal countries create a small mountain of elected representatives. Baden-Württemberg, in southern Germany, with twice the population of Scotland, has a total of nearly 24,000 elected representatives against Scotland’s total of 1,416. Austerity and a self-fulfilling lack of respect for localism has pushed debate in the opposite centralising direction. Britain needs what it currently does not value – powerful local devolution. But who will champion that?

Ironically, so long as Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish spending is a function of Westminster budgetary decisions, the Celtic nations have “skin in the game” during almost every parliamentary debate. Raising taxes in Scotland (devo max) would minimise the problem of financial contingency for the Scots but not for the Welsh or Northern Ireland Assemblies.

And that’s the other problem with a “DIY” solution short of an English Parliament. It’s not clear when the subject under discussion is uniquely English. A health debate might seem like a good time for Scots MPs to withdraw, until it stumbles onto health and safety, which is a reserved matter involving all the Celtic MPs.

That recent opinion poll result could mean a whole host of things. It could mean the English are ready to see their nation as just one (huge) part of the UK that is currently hogging its whole governance structure. That’s unlikely.

It could mean they want to seize back control of the coach and horses being driven through British constitutional life by Alex Salmond. But control over the direction of that vehicle can only be acquired by occupying the driving seat. Shouting from the sidelines is no longer an option – and yet Pandora’s Box will open if English politicians get seriously involved in constitutional debate – and they know it.

Why does Westminster receive the lion’s share of all tax gathered in the UK when local and national devolved governments are responsible for spending it? Why is “grassroots” good enough for providing rhetorical ballast in the UK but bad for actual policy? Why not shift to a local income tax so tax and spend, power and responsibility are equally owned at every level of government across the UK? Why not encourage the Queen to surprise everyone with a Diamond Jubilee Bill of Rights making her subjects citizens at long last? Why not disband the House of Lords and consider its potential to represent all parts of the UK in a new federal structure?

Yip. It’s far easier to give a tiny, tentative nod towards the establishment of an English Parliament in the full and certain knowledge it will never happen without a credible crusader.

If Simon Hughes isn’t the English Alex Salmond, who is?