Letter: Shropshire Star

Voting bid will assist case for parliament


The Conservatives have adopted English Votes on English Laws (EVoEL) as one of their key policies. EVoEL, whilst doomed to failure for many reasons, is an important proposal.
The Conservatives are the first of the main political parties to acknowledge that there is something wrong with MPs representing constituencies in Scotland and Wales voting on matters that only affect England.

The Conservatives’ answer is to ban MPs not elected in England from taking part in votes on bills that only affect England.

They would have the Spe-aker of the House (currently a Labour MP with a Scottish constituency) certify that a bill only affected England and from then on only MPs elected in England would be able to take part in the vote.

Sounds like a perfect solution right? Wrong.

Scotland and Wales are both heavily subsidised by the English taxpayer and anything in England that costs money will reduce the amount of money available to subsidise them.

Scottish and Welsh MPs have already realised that they will therefore be able to claim an interest in any so-called English bill, rendering the EVoEL concept completely useless.

Labour is clearly concerned at the thought of not being able to use Scottish MPs to vote through legislation in England.

Despite EVoEL being unworkable, I sincerely hope the the Conservatives manage to get it through. Once they have accepted that it is wrong for foreign MPs to vote on English laws and EVoEL has failed, they will have no choice but to adopt a policy supporting an English parliament.

Stuart Parr, Telford