Many people believe that David Cameron helped create the circumstances which led to the SNP landslide at the general election.
One September morning, the day after Scotland’s referendum campaign, he sauntered out of Downing Street to assert not that it was time to faithfully implement the Vow to Scotland but to introduce EVEL for England. In that moment of supreme arrogance he created one of the key narratives of the general election campaign.
The Cameron impact was unintentional but exactly what he deserved. For the previous two weeks he and the other Westminster leaders had been desperately scrambling to avoid defeat in the referendum. However, with Scotland apparently safely back in its political box he decided to focus on England within minutes of the result being declared.
Little wonder that so many Scots then decided to teach Cameron and Westminster a lesson.
EVEL is the splendidly named proposal of English Votes for English Laws. At first sight it seems like an OK idea. Indeed for many years I supported it not just in principle but in practice. I spent a lot of time in the House of Commons NOT voting on matters which only concerned English MPs.
However, the proposals announced last week are a complete shambles. They are an insult to the intelligence as well as to Scotland.
If implemented in some votes Commons Scottish MPs will not be allowed to turn up. In other votes Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh MPs will not be allowed to turn up.
Then in another set of votes only English and Welsh MPs will be able to turn up. In yet other votes everybody will be allowed to turn up but English votes will be counted separately and if there is not a “double majority” then the measure will not pass. It will be stuck in limbo, frozen in constitutional aspic.
In order to count this “double majority” a system of telling by tablet computer is to be introduced in the Commons. The irony that the House of Commons have finally introduced electronic voting but only in order to stop the votes of Scottish MPs counting seems totally lost on the Government dragged into the 21st Century by fear of the Scots!
All of this hokey cokey voting will create a Keystone Cops Parliament, with people rushing in and out. However, none of that would matter if this didn’t have a very serious side.
The trouble is that many votes look like purely English measures but on closer examination are nothing of the sort. For example, in January 2004 I voted against Tony Blair imposing top- up tuition fees on English students in England. Blair’s majority of 100 plus was swept away, down to a mere five votes and it was carried only by the votes of Scottish Labour MPs.
This would seem a natural candidate for EVEL. Except that this measure has had an impact on Scotland through the workings of the Barnett formula which distributes money to Scotland as a percentage of what is spent in England.
More money was spent in student loans and less in direct finance meaning less funding for Scotland. As a result the Scottish Government either had to introduce fees (which is what Labour did) or abolish the fees which is what the SNP did in 2008.
In other words, Scotland has a direct interest in a measure like student tuition fees in England but it is exactly that sort of thing which is being lined up as one of these new EVEL measures.
In other words Cameron is now wishing to create two classes of MPs the English MPs who will get to vote on everything and the rest who will only vote by leave of the Speaker!
That can be called many things but it is not a Parliament where all MPs are treated equally. It is a recipe for confusion and resentment and will hasten the end of the union it is being introduced to buttress.
It is daylight robbery where nobody ends up with the loot. However, this farce is not so much Reservoir Dogs as a breakfast of dogs.