It`s in the details

The presiding officer of the Welsh assembly has said that devolution in England would help deliver a “United Kingdom in a united Europe.”

Lord Elis-Thomas said giving people in England a similar say in their domestic affairs would help achieve a more secure constitutional settlement.

“There should be a proper English parliament, and that could be arranged very easily if the Commons sat on a Tuesday or Wednesday as an English parliament.”

So we are to be allowed a proper English parliament which would sit for one day a week with dual MPs, that is English members of the British parliament also sitting as members of an English Parliament.

Lord Elis-Thomas is in line with the thinking of John Redwood who also favours a part time English parliament this from Mr Redwoods new Blog

“My view is that all of us elected to the Westminster Parliament for English constituencies should perform a dual role. We should work with colleagues from Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland on Union matters for part of the week, and for the rest of the week, the Westminster Parliament itself should be the English Parliament, where we, English representatives, settle all the matters that are devolved Scotland ourselves at Westminster, without the help or interference of our colleagues from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The English Parliament at Westminster would therefore create a much more fair and balanced United Kingdom.”

I do not see how it can be considered in any way balanced for Scotland and Wales to each have a separate parliament with separately elected members sitting full time, yet England would only be allowed one day a week where British MP could decide on English matters.

If they want to make it balanced then both the Scottish parliament and the Welsh assembly should be dissolved and then we could all have dual role MPs and separate days for Scottish Welsh English and British business it would also have the added benefit of saving vast sums of money.

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