English voters unhappy with devolution deal

20 Jan 12
Just one in four English voters back the current devolution settlement, according to a survey published today.

By Richard Johnstone | 23 January 2012

Just one in four English voters back the current devolution settlement, according to a survey published today.

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Future of England found increasing‘increasing resentment’ over the system where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved administrations, but there is no English equivalent.

The survey of 1,500 people, carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research and Edinburgh and Cardiff universities, comes as the Scottish Government prepares to publish plans for a vote on independence in 2014.

Just over a fifth of respondents said Scotland should leave the UK but around 80% backed the devolution of new powers short of independence, giving Holyrood full fiscal autonomy.

Almost the same proportion, 79%, said Scottish MPs should be barred from voting on laws in the House of Commons that affect only England. Last week, the government launched a committee to examine this issue, known as the West Lothian Question.

Just under half of those surveyed believed that England had a raw deal from devolution, with 45% agreeing that Scotland received ‘more than its fair share of public spending’. The number agreeing with this view has almost doubled since 2000.

More than half – 59% – also said that they did not trust the UK government to work in the best long-term interests of England.

Asked which party best stood up for English interests, 23% said none. Labour was deemed best by 21%, followed by the Conservatives at 19%, the UK Independence Party at 9% and the Liberal Democrats at 4%.

IPPR director Nick Pearce said that English identity was being ‘increasingly expressed in terms that are resentful of the devolution settlement’.

He added: ‘But that doesn't mean that Englishness is not capable of an open and inclusive political and cultural voice, within a reformed United Kingdom.

‘Our mainstream political parties need to embrace Englishness, take it seriously, and find new ways of giving it political expression. It is not something to be feared or abandoned to those on the margins of Right-wing politics.’

Richard Wyn Jones, professor of politics at Cardiff University and co-author of the report, said that despite successive governments’ focus on Britishness, at a popular level it is Englishness that resonated most.

He added: ‘There is strong evidence that English identity is becoming increasingly politicised. The more English a person feels the more likely they are to be dissatisfied with the way that the UK is being governed post-devolution, and the more likely they are to support the explicit recognition of an English dimension to their country’s politics.’

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