Beyond good and EVEL

Today the Commons debates whether England should its own separate national anthem.

It was last night, however, when Westminster really passed through the constitutional looking glass, as Scottish MPs were excluded from a vote in the first application of the English votes for English laws (EVEL) parliamentary mechanism.

Conservative MPs cheered as a ‘grand committee’ of English and Welsh MPs decided elements of the government’s housing bill didn’t apply to Scotland, and therefore the Scots shouldn’t get a look in.

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The SNP’s Pete Wishart was very upset. “Nothing has infuriated the Scottish people more than the measures around English Votes for English Law,” he said.

Interestingly SNP MPs used to refuse to vote on matters which didn’t affect Scotland anyway. Indeed in 2014 Wishart said EVEL was “an issue that the Scottish people could not care less about.”

Last night, however, he was infuriated. The mechanism was “driving Scotland out of the UK”, he said.

You’d think he might have been more pleased.

It is those who want the UK to be kept together who have greater reasons to be concerned.

Warnings EVEL could lead to party political manipulation have already come to pass, with the Conservatives’ increased majority allowing them to pass a housing bill with more than 60 new pages of legislation inserted at the last minute, including redefining 'affordable housing' to include homes for sale costing up to £450,000, and handing local planning over to private companies.

For a time last night the House of Commons was an English and Welsh parliament. On England-only issues, it will be an English Parliament.

And whether issues are solely the responsibility of England, or any other part of the UK, will depend greatly on the whim of the speaker.

And while MPs dance round the mulberry bush of who is entitled to vote on what issue, and what does or does not affect the devolved nations (after the latest Scotland Bill are there any Scotland-only issues remaining for English MPs to vote on?) there are serious political ramifications to this.

What credible political party would ever elect an MP from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland as leader again, when they will be excluded from major votes? What leader would ever appoint a Home Secretary from a nation with separate jurisdiction over a number of issues? The Health and Education Secretaries already speak for the UK in international forums, despite now being the Secretary of State for those topics in England only.

In attempting to put a lid on the West Lothian question the government has opened an even bigger can of worms.

Perhaps England needs a parliament of its own before it gets an anthem.