Kim Howells on the English Question"

In its continuing role of being the paper of Unionism in Wales reports that Kim Howells has emerged from wherever his bunker is now to claim that Tony Blair’s government deliberately ignored the contentious issue of Welsh and Scottish MPs voting on English laws when drawing up devolution plans,
The ex-Pontypridd MP told the Mckay  commission examining the so-called West Lothian question that Labour decided to “stay away from it” because it was “difficult”.

A startling admission or a stating the bleeding obvious?

With no real clamour for an English parliament at the time or regional devolution there.What wouls be the solution?  impose a Parliament on England (and notice they always talk about an English parliament not Assembly)  or insist that devolution to Wales and Scotland would fall if The English failed to support a call for their own Parliament.

The call came from Wales and Scotland to include England at the time whether by creating a Parliament or regional Assemblies would have been pointless.

This does not mean the "West Lathian" question  or as it has become "The English Question should not have been addressed since 1997

In a response to Sir Emyr Jones-Parry, the former All Wales Convention chair who now sits on the McKay Commission suggested to Dr Howells:

“I’m tempted to say, when you say you ignored the question at the time, the thought process wasn’t perhaps as deep as you said earlier.”

But the former minister responded:

“No, it was a conscious decision, Sir Emyr, not to. Stay away from it.”
Dr Howells said that, while he was opposed to the establishment of an English parliament – one of the solutions which has been suggested to the question – he believed it might be inevitable.

“I’m not sure I can see an alternative, really, to an English parliament,” he said.
“I’m not in favour of one, by the way, because I think we are on the slippery slope of breaking up Britain, but I hope the kinds of settlements that we’ve designed, which have evolved since, will hold us back from that, but I fear that, if it becomes an issue. I don’t think it is, by the way, at the moment, probably amongst some interested individuals and academics, amongst some parliamentarians, but it’s not an issue which fills the front page of the Daily Mail.”

Is this what he reads now?

I support an English Parliament but in the meantime the parties in the Westminster parliament should should issue a Red White or Blue line whip if there are Bills or parts of a Bill that affect only one of the members of the UK

Red Line Whip Only Welsh MPs to vote on parts of legislation that only really affect Wales that are not currently devolved such as "West Glamorgan question", cited by Rhodri Morgan where English Conservative MPs who rebelled against local government re-organisation in their own constituencies, but voted for it in Wales.

White Line Whip . Only MPs vote on Legislation which only affects England this would be by far the most common

Blue Line Whip Scottish MPs only to vote on any Part of Legislation that only affects Scotland (This would be rare).

But this I admit would be a messy compromise and not resolve the issue entirely but I can't see why it shouldn't be agreed.

The problem for Unionist like Kim Howells is not so much that a English Parliament would lead to the inevitable break up of his precious union but an admission that Wales and Scotland exist as nations and that Westminster which for Unionist is the place where they want to achieve their political ambitions.

Its been argued that part of the reason for the SNP success in Scotland is that they send thier best people to Holyrood where Labour send their best to Westminster.

Howells' is a political dinosaur who never really supported devolution  and who still thinks he has something relevant to say . But telling a commission what we already know and offering no solution is not worth it.