Currently Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own parliament or assembly with devolved powers over education, health and other areas.
MPs from these countries sitting in the UK Parliament, however, still retain the right to vote on laws that will apply in England and not their own countries.
A system of English votes on English laws would mean that only those MPs in Westminster representing English constituencies would be permitted to vote on England-only laws.
Why you should vote for this reform:
• It prevents laws being passed due to the votes of Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh MPs who won't be held accountable for how they voted because the laws don't affect their constituents.
• It ends the fundamental unfairness of MPs from one country voting on issues that affect another country whose MPs don't enjoy the equivalent right.
• It gives the English nation a political voice at the national level, which at the moment it lacks.
If you like this idea why not vote for it?
Here
*** link removed from this site by blog owner ***
(see post dated 31 March 2010)
6 comments:
It might also have the felicitous side effect of ending once and for all the Jock Raj we have become accustomed to south of the border.
You think so?
Good call Mrs Rigby.
It's a cause after my own heart, but realistically I can't see "them" (anybody) getting rid of all the English 'regional assemblies' - where things seem to happen but nobody's quite sure what - and letting there be only one representative body for the whole of England.
In principle I think it is a good idea to have separate sessions of the Houses of Parliament to deal with business relating only to England, or only England and Wales, or only Wales, with English and/or Welsh MPs and peers only as appropriate.
There are out of date laws that need reforming, such as that relating to chancel repair liability, which Gordon Brown does not think matters, because, of course as a Scot, it does not affect him personally.
This would enable time to be spent on such esoteric matters without boring members to whom they are of no interest or importance.
Message from Power2010 Team dated 9 February 2010 14:42
Dear Mrs Rigby
Firstly I wanted to say thanks for blogging about us and mentioning the campaign.
You'll have seen that we're now over halfway through the public vote phase of the campaign where the top 5 reforms that will form the backbone of the campaign are being voted for by the public.
There are 29 ideas being voted on. PR is currently in the lead, followed shortly by abolishing ID cards and the database state - but a lot could change between now and February 22nd when voting closes.
We're hoping to mobilise as many people as possible to vote to make the result as legitimate and powerful as it can be to strengthen our hand when we finally approach politicians and with that end in mind I wondered if you'd consider featuring one of these fashionable Power2010 "Vote" buttons on your website or sidebar:
http://www. (link removed from this site by blog owner)
There's even a choice of colours: black and white. Just copy and paste the HTML into your site.
Thanks again - and I hope you can keep following and blogging the campaign.
If you have any questions or feedback on the campaign do let me know.
All the best,
Ghazal
Power2010 team
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