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Silence me on English issues, pleads Welsh MP

David Cornock | 13:03 UK time, Wednesday, 16 March 2011

If you feel a void in your life during the next seven weeks, but cannot put your finger on it, then it could be the absence of Welsh Question Time in the Commons.

Today was the last occasion on which this monthly Westminster treat was served before Wales goes to the polls on May 5.

It was, by and large, the routine jargon-fest, with MPs competing to discuss various commissions in a way that will be impenetrable to most normal people. At least Cheryl Gillan restricted herself to the one "trilateral".

Two things stood out from the routine. The Wales Office Minister David Jones announced that he had written to the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, to ask him to include Wales in a scheme that could cut the price of petrol by 5p a litre.

Mr Alexander announced earlier this month that the UK Government is applying to the European Commission for the power to introduce a rebate of that amount in some parts of the UK.

The ones the Treasury has in mind are Highland communities, the Northern Isles, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Islands of the Clyde and the Isles of Scilly. It doesn't look as if any part of Wales is included, but the Wales Office will doubtless correct me if I'm wrong.

The second notable moment came when Monmouth Tory MP David Davies pitched in to the debate over the so-called West Lothian question - why can Scottish and Welsh MPs vote on health and education in England when they have no say over those issues in their own constituencies?

As Mr Davies put it: "Clearly the vast majority of people in Wales wish to remain a part of the union, and as a proud Welshman and a proud unionist I believe something must be done about the West Lothian question to stop Welsh MPs voting on matters for which they have no responsibility."

Of course, there is nothing (apart from government whips) to stop Mr Davies from abstaining on these issues, but Cheryl Gillan told MPs her government would set up a commission (yes, another one) on the West Lothian question.

The Tories seem to have backtracked slightly on their previous "English votes for English laws" policy but it will be interesting to see if the commission suggests stopping Welsh MPs voting on England-only issues - and whether it extends the principle to English-based MPs occupying the Wales Office.

But David Davies has a dual role. He also chairs the select committee on Welsh affairs. This committee'sis "to examine matters within the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Wales (including relations with the National Assembly for Wales)".

The committee is currently looking at S4C (responsibility of department for culture, media, olympics and sport), and inward investment (department for business or Welsh assembly government). It has already reported on Severn Bridge tolls (department for transport) and has looked at the Newport passport office (home office).

If David Davies's suggestion that "something must be done.....to stop Welsh MPs voting on matters for which they have no responsibility" is taken up the select committee might find itself with rather less to do.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    The list of things that happen in England that don't affect Wales one way or another is very short indeed. The Barnett formula takes English policies and English expenditures and uses those to determine how much money Wales gets for public services. If England decides to dismember the NHS for example, will Wales be able to maintain a health service in the old way - institutionally and financially? Surely not. So why shouldn't Welsh MPs be able to debate and vote on the issues? In those few cases where English policies really don't have implications for Wales, Mr Davies and other Welsh MPs could abstain on principle - though the Party whips might complain.

  • Comment number 2.

    #1 wrote ....

    ... In those few cases where English policies really don't have implications for Wales ...

    Presumably by the same token "laws that only effect Wales" should be small in number ... what a web politics weaves, it has a certain smell of expediency, advantageous rather than fair or just.

  • Comment number 3.

    #2

    The big difference is that laws passed in Wales for Wales don't generally affect English financing; there is no reverse Barnett formula and nothing the Welsh govt does can currently alter the size of the block grant.

    Moreover, since the Welsh Assembly is subsidiary to Westminster, the House of Commons could in principle legislate to offset or cancel any Welsh Act, though in practice they wouldn't bother. Things are hardly symmetrical.

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