So, the most worrying outcome of the general election for the English gets ever closer: six Scottish and three Welsh nationalist MPs propping up a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition government.
Part of the price the English would have to pay – apart from the blindly obvious unfairness of such an outcome - would be that the Scottish and Welsh nationalist support would be dependent on protecting those nations from the public spending cuts that all parties agree must be made. Thus, a double-whammy of spending cuts for England: our own cuts, plus more cuts to pay for those not made in Scotland and Wales.
In addition, who knows (yet) what extra powers will be demanded (and granted) for the regional chambers in Scotland and Wales, while the three main parties stand resolutely against England being granted the same governing privileges as those given to the non-English parts of Britain.
The Scottish National Party favours English Votes on English Matters, which in reality is a piece of parliamentary tinkering that offers England nothing like a government of its own. What the SNP have realised is that such an arrangement would be almost unworkable and would inevitably place greater strain on the Union.
By this token, they should also be supporting an English Parliament. Here’s something that the SNP and Plaid Cymru should be demanding of a potential coalition government: create an English Parliament. Why? Well we are told by all those that oppose such a move that it would mean the end of the Union. Now there’s a tempting prospect. No more Barnett formula for England to pay, plus the benefits of governing your own country and protecting its cultural, historical, traditional base and defending its economy and public services.
Or, scrap Barnett and allow the Scottish Parliament unlimited tax-raising powers – let Scotland pay for its level of services and England for the level it requires – that would be one way of making EVoEM workable and overcoming any financial complexities that may arise.
Yet, the end of the Union was not something predicted by those supporting the creation of the Scottish and Welsh devolved bodies, although, to think that it would have dampened down such demands goes to show how stunningly naive some professional politicians and commentators can be when they want to be. Particularly, if they believed that 50 million people in England would forever tolerate such unfairness or should now think of Scotland and Wales when it comes to their own governing arrangements, in a way that those countries were not expected to ‘think of England’ when voting on devolution.
It has been argued that a four-part federation where one part makes up 80 % of the whole is too unbalanced to work (ignoring the imbalance in our current constitutional arrangements). But, the US functions quite adequately with Wyoming’s population of 509,000 against California’s 36 million. Rhineland Westphalia with 18 million and Bremen with 700,000 still enables Germany to survive. If you want an example of a small Union maintaining some continued existence then Belgium with 60 per cent of its population in Flanders, still survives. But, those concerned with the survival of the Union should have thought of that and anyway, what’s wrong with being Prime Minster of England – sounds like a good job to me.
So, although the clear and present dangers to England from the Scottish and Welsh nationalists propping up a British party in government are obvious, it may not be all that bad; there are some crumbs of comfort to be drawn. Such a government may bring about an English Parliament and even an end to the Union, much faster than its current pace.
Colin Copus is Professor of Local Politics in the Department of Public Policy at De Montfort University
