The Guardian view on English votes for English laws: devolution for England is essential, but not like this

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/16/guardian-view-on-english-votes-for-english-laws

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Devolution always had implications for England, and the need to address the English dimension in British affairs is irrefutable. The Smith commission’s plans to extend the powers of the Scottish parliament, outlined last month, have emphasised the asymmetry of power produced by the failure to attempt any coherent devolution in England. So, there is nothing fundamentally unreasonable in the people of the UK beginning to explore the English – and Welsh and Northern Irish – implications of Smith and the current mood. On the contrary, it is necessary work. In principle it should be actively supported.

But the proposals that William Hague announced on Tuesday are a small-minded, wholly tactical response to a much larger strategic political problem of UK governance that is left unaddressed by the new document. Like most other things the Conservatives have done and said on the constitutional front since the Scottish referendum, the Hague paper is compromised by David Cameron’s original political sin – his irresponsible insistence on responding to the vote against independence by announcing that it now meant providing English votes for English laws. As the Guardian’s behind-the-scenes reporting on the referendum this week has underlined, this was a move about which all other UK parties rightly warned – including, in Alistair Darling’s case, at 5am on the morning after the referendum. Mr Cameron’s determination to persist is hard to forgive.

The prime minister’s failure of statesmanship at such a crucial moment snubbed Scotland’s hard-won decision to remain in the UK in the most provocative way imaginable, by providing Scottish national feeling with a brand new anti-English grievance. It was as though, now that the Scots had turned their backs on nationalism in favour of the union, the English were being given the green light to embrace a form of nationalism of their own instead. The net result has been the resurrection of Scottish nationalism. The stability of the UK, which seemed to have survived the 18 September vote and thus to have given itself a decent chance of progressive reinvention – which is almost certainly what most of its citizens want – is now more threatened than ever.

Mr Hague’s proposals are in practice a set of options, none of which binds the government. His approach has been spurned by the Liberal Democrats, who have their own federalist agenda, and snubbed by Labour, who want to see such matters referred to a constitutional convention – whatever that exactly means.

As a result, Tuesday’s plans are dead in the water until after the general election. They are important only as a piece of political positioning by the Conservatives, who are determined not to allow Ukip to cast themselves as the English party. Yet just because Mr Hague’s ideas have exploded on the launchpad, it does not mean that the issues they address can be left to fester. All parties, and Labour above all others, need to have a comprehensive UK devolution plan which can be implemented in time for the 2020 election.