09 May 2010

The West Lothian question writ large

The new UK Parliament will meet in Westminster with no party able to command an absolute majority.  Although there was a decisive rejection of Labour, there is still the possibility that the defeated Government will be able to cobble together an agreement to stay in power, needing an unholy alliance of nationalists to reach the magic figure of 326 votes.
What's really striking is the way that England is overwhelmingly represented by Conservative MPs but others can control events. English MPs can be - and frequently have been - overruled on questions of education, local government, economic and social policies by the MPs of the other three countries of the Union. In contrast, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own assemblies, where English MPs have no influence.
This issue was exposed by the great parliamentarian, Tam Dalyell, who asked
For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate ... at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Due to boundary reform, that figure of 119 is now 116, but the West Lothian question (as Enoch Powell dubbed it), is vitally important as the UK electoral system faces a significant shake-up, whichever party reaches an agreement with the Lib Dems.   Should MPs from the other countries be allowed to change the electoral system in England?
Here are the statistics.  I couldn't find such a table online, so this analysis is based on the Daily Telegraph results page and used the BBC results as an additional authoritative source. I've gone through the table relying on my own geographical notions to split by country, and if I've slipped up, no doubt someone will be kind enough to let me know.

Country
CON
LAB
LD
Eng Other
SNP
Plaid Cymru
DUP
Sinn Fein
NI Other
None
Total
England
295
192
42
2




1
532
Scotland
1
39
12

6





58
Wales
8
26
3

3




40
N Ireland






8
5
5

18
 Total
304
257
57
2
6
3
8
5
5
1
648
The current Speaker is counted as a Conservative and the Thirsk and Malton constituency didn't vote due to the death of one of the candidates.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment. It may be moderated before publication.