Conservatives Fuck England up the Arse (and don't even give it the reach around)

Today's Sunday Times confirms the Tory u-turn on their long-standing policy of English Votes on English Laws. Ken Clarke's fudge, dubbed 'English Pauses on English Clauses', is to be adopted by the incoming Cameron government.

Scottish MPs will still be able to vote on issues that affect only England under a Tory government, despite David Cameron’s vow to end the anomaly.

Members with constituencies north of the border would not be banned from voting at the crucial second and third readings of bills on English-only legislation.

As Malcolm Rifkind noted, Ken Clarke's solution would not have prevented those infamous West Lothian complaints:

By leaving the Second Reading to be voted on by all MPs this will mean that legislation that only applies to England could receive a Second Reading and be approved in principle even if it was unacceptable to a majority of MPs representing English constituencies. Thus the legislation on tuition fees, foundation hospitals or fox hunting would still have been approved.

David Cameron, who has consistently accused Labour of failing to address the West Lothian Question, and who has stated that such failure puts the Union at risk, should now expect the same accusations leveled at him. He has reneged on a promise made not only by him but also by the three Tory leaders before him (Hague, IDS and Howard).

Far too much of our tax pays for bureaucracy – and under Labour it is running wild. We have new Parliaments for Scotland and Wales, new regional development agencies and a host of quangos stuffed with Labour politicians. And for what? — David Cameron, Oxford Journal, 19 May 2000

Cameron previously dismissed the 1998 round of devolution as bureaucracy, but now he falls over himself to pander to the sensibilities of Scottish and Welsh home-rulers. He will use the same 'bureaucracy and cost' argument against calls for an English parliament and democracy in England. But Cameron is a man of few, if any, political convictions. He is a man of political expedience who sways easily with public opinion. It is up to us to hold him to the wind, to make good on his promise of preventing Scottish MPs meddling in English issues by creating a de facto English Parliament within the Union Parliament. The best way to do that is to inform your Tory candidate that you will not be voting Conservative because of this decision, and to vote for English Votes on English Laws. Do it today.

David Cameron has also promised a ‘great amount of money for Scotland’s great needs’. That's nice. What a great guy. It must be super to be able to go up to the Scottish Conference and give positive messages about funding and protecting Scottish MPs' privileged voting rights. I expect we in England will have to wait until the English Conservative Conference to hear what promises he makes England...Oh wait....There is no English Conference (nor even English representation at the UK Conference) because the Tories are institutionally racist. Still, at least we know, thanks to news reports from Scotland, that English nationhood will be enshrined in the constitution by a simple procedural change to the Westminster voting system in the "first few weeks" of a Conservative government.

Seriously, can this really be their answer to the English Question?