Power 2010: English Parliament doesn't make the cut
Power2010 have released the results of their deliberative poll. And it's not good news for supporters of an English parliament.
Before the consultation a referendum on an English Parliament was the 27th most popular idea. After the consultation a referendum on an English Parliament was the 45th most popular idea. In other words it had dropped below the 50% approval rating required to move forward to the public vote.
The CEP should take heart from the popularity of an English Parliament before the constitutional experts leaned on the participants. It lends weight to the growing belief that the official Government line that 'there is no demand for an English parliament' is a complete lie.
But it is disappointing that the instinct of the ordinary voter for an English parliament appears to have been subverted by the Establishment view of the constitutional experts employed by Power2010. Alan Trench was the principal constitutional expert advising the participants during the deliberative phase, and I cannot imagine for one second that he put the case for an English parliament with any force whatsoever.
English Votes on English laws is one of the 29 constitutional reforms that did make the cut. So you can now vote for this one the Power2010 website. Before the consultation banning Scottish MPs from voting on English and Welsh matters was the 4th most popular idea. After the consultation it had sunk to be the 16th most popular idea, so the constitutional experts didn't quite manage to persuade the deliberative group of the unworkability of this reform.
Regionalism fared badly before and after the deliberative consultation. Adopting a region-based federalist system was the 50th most popular idea prior to consultation. After consultation it had risen to 46th.
Scandalously a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU also missed out, but only thanks to the consultation process.
So, with a referendum on an English parliament missing, what reforms will I vote for?
There are a number that I could lend my support to.
- Against my better judgment I will vote for English Votes on English Laws. If I can't have an English Parliament within the Union, then I will vote for the measure most likely to break up the Union. And the prospect of Power2010 lobbying Gordon Brown to sign up to a pledge to ban Scottish MPs is too delicious for me not to vote for this.
- I'll vote for 16 year-olds to have the vote. This is not a big political issue but it is an issue of doing what is right. Quite simply: If you are old enough to pay taxes, then you are old enough to vote.
- Fixed Term Parliaments. Why should the incumbent pick the date of the election?
- Give MPs control of the parliamentary timetable. We live under an elective dictatorship. Power has to be moved from the Executive to Parliament.
- More free votes in the House of Commons. I'm not sure how this would be achieved but I approve in principle because, like the above, it strengthens Parliament against the Executive.
- Scrap ID Cards. No explanation for this reform is required, unless you are a storm-trooping Nazi or a Labour Party supporter. No freeborn Englishman would support ID cards
Radical changes like a written constitution, a bill of rights, or a change in the voting system - things that should require a referendum - I will not consider until we have an English Parliament. Our constitution has a fundamental flaw in that it is democratically asymmetric and entrenches discrimination on the basis of nationhood, against England.
To construct a well-fitting jigsaw puzzle, you begin with a whole picture and then design the parts, not the other way around. When the Labour Party embarked on its extra-parliamentary Scottish enterprise, I wonder whether it realised where that was likely to lead. If it did, why, now that Labour is in Government, has it not shared its thinking with Parliament about the whole picture it intends to draw? - Baroness Carnegy of Lour; Hansard, 13 May 1998
Likewise, there is little point trying to reassemble the jigsaw when one of its pieces is missing.
Vote for your favourite reforms here, and if you read anything else about Power2010 then make sure it is this piece by David Rickard.
Trackback URL for this post:
The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
from Toque on Tue, 05/17/2011 - 16:05There's a hum-dinger of a post from Anthony Barnett on Our Kingdom:
Particularly worrying here for anyone concerned with the fate of democracy in this country is the role of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, which is and will remain the strategic funder
Beyond Westminster
from Toque on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 09:01The following is a partial transcript of Radio Four's Beyond Westminster programme, broadcast 16th Apr 2011.
Richard Wyn Jones: The elephant on the doorstep is the fact that the UK Government for many areas of domestic policy is now the English governmen
- Login to post comments
The only thing I'd say about
The only thing I'd say about a written constitution is that it would at least have to address the English Question, as you couldn't possibly enshrine the present asymmetric arrangements in a rational written constitution, because it would just look so insane and obviously unfair.
However, I agree that going for a written constitution now is like putting the cart before the horse. Just as with the Power 2010 deliberation itself, you need to be clear about which nation the constitution is for, and which people are eligible to decide about it. A constitution that enshrined unfair arrangements towards England, or which recognised the other UK countries as distinct polities and nations but not England, and which was voted for by the whole UK population, would manifestly be a violation of the right of the English people to determine their own form of government (and constitution).
I've lost what little interest I had
This Power 2010 was yet another calculated endeavour by the British establishment to detach the people from decision-making, under the guise of "involving the people". The usual "We're bringing democracy to the people" while in fact doing just the opposite.
I went along with it, most reluctantly, merely to see how the English Parliament choice would be handled, and I was not disappointed.
This Power 2010 is just another manifestation of "localism" which is in reality the anithesis of localism, like removing the county councils to replace them with Regional unelected, remote politburos.
The fact that Power 2010 was chaired by a Scot, Helena Kennedy, hasn't escaped my attention. As Chairman she should have scotched Alan Trench's move to remove an English Parliament. Fat chance of that.