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UK - Election 2015

Maybe something akin to Syria, given that that's a country with an ongoing civil war where neither side has prevailed, let alone because of Western bombing support to one of them.
Perhaps. Or one in which Gadafi crushed the opposition militarily, which he was looking very likely to do. Follow-up scenarios range from not pretty to very ugly indeed, with so many mercenary forces present and all the ethnic, nationalist, and otherwise tribal loyalties involved. Plus Gadafi was a lunatic.
 
Today's collection (or more like the weekend's collection) of IMO poorly thought through policies:



Interesting to see the Conservatives playing a blinder with "English votes for English laws" which will more or less ensure that they will "rule" England no matter what the overall result of future general elections.
 
Today's collection (or more like the weekend's collection) of IMO poorly thought through policies ...

Interesting to see the Conservatives playing a blinder with "English votes for English laws" which will more or less ensure that they will "rule" England no matter what the overall result of future general elections.
There's no rule that requires English voters to vote Tory. If the Conservatives rule England and make a mess of it, they can be ejected from power by the English electorate, both in England and in the UK in general. There are about ten times as many English voters as Scottish voters.

Anyway, all this makes an English Parliament even more necessary.
 
......Anyway, all this makes an English Parliament even more necessary.

Because the thing that gets most English electors all sweaty with excitement is yet another layer of government, and another set of politicians. You'd also have to think of some sort of role for the current Parliament. They wouldn't even get to design the next set of stamps now that the PO is private.
 
There's no rule that requires English voters to vote Tory. If the Conservatives rule England and make a mess of it, they can be ejected from power by the English electorate, both in England and in the UK in general. There are about ten times as many English voters as Scottish voters.

You're right there is no such rule, it's just highly that this will happen.

Anyway, all this makes an English Parliament even more necessary.

If we're moving down the route to a federal UK then IMO it wold make sense to have, say, 5-10 regional assemblies rather than a single English parliament.


edited to add...

As MikeG points out, it'd be (yet) another layer of government with all the same opportunities for waste and corruption so if there is going to be a federal UK, I'd like to see a layer going
 
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There's no rule that requires English voters to vote Tory. If the Conservatives rule England and make a mess of it, they can be ejected from power by the English electorate, both in England and in the UK in general. There are about ten times as many English voters as Scottish voters.

Anyway, all this makes an English Parliament even more necessary.
We already have one, yuk, yuk :D Oh, sorry, we agreed not to say that out loud, didn't we … :boxedin:
 
If we're moving down the route to a federal UK then IMO it wold make sense to have, say, 5-10 regional assemblies rather than a single English parliament.

Why? Surely it would make sense to have a body at the main level of regional identity? (I.e. england, rather than a merge of say Manchester and Liverpool in a vague north-western asembly)
 
Why? Surely it would make sense to have a body at the main level of regional identity? (I.e. england, rather than a merge of say Manchester and Liverpool in a vague north-western asembly)

Partly to have components of roughly equal size. That way at least there is some concept of equality of representation at the parliament level.

Partly to have components which face roughly similar challenges being able to adopt measures to address that challenge. Something which is good for London and the South East may not be good for rural areas or post-industrial areas and vice versa.

Manchester and Liverpool have more in common with each other than they have with London or Bath or Truro.
 
Partly to have components of roughly equal size. That way at least there is some concept of equality of representation at the parliament level.

Partly to have components which face roughly similar challenges being able to adopt measures to address that challenge. Something which is good for London and the South East may not be good for rural areas or post-industrial areas and vice versa.

Manchester and Liverpool have more in common with each other than they have with London or Bath or Truro.

They tried regional assemblies before, remember, and no one was interested.
 
They tried regional assemblies before, remember, and no one was interested.

I'm one of those who isn't interested. A federal UK only makes sense if each federal component has an identity. From that perspective, national assemblies make sense but then I'd argue the size of the English population means that the English would be under-represented compared to the other nations.

I guess we'll see whether an English Parliament has an more traction than the regional assemblies. One of the reasons why regional assemblies may not have been effective is the lack of power, they were just IMO business development agencies and not legislative bodies.
 
I'm one of those who isn't interested. A federal UK only makes sense if each federal component has an identity. From that perspective, national assemblies make sense but then I'd argue the size of the English population means that the English would be under-represented compared to the other nations.

I guess we'll see whether an English Parliament has an more traction than the regional assemblies. One of the reasons why regional assemblies may not have been effective is the lack of power, they were just IMO business development agencies and not legislative bodies.

I am not interested either, which distinguishes me and, I suspect, most 'English' people (I suppose I must so designate myself although, like many of us, my ancestry is not exclusively or predominantly English) from Scottish and Welsh nationalists. What we have is pretty much OK, isn't it? Regional assemblies where there is a demand for them but not otherwise.
 
I am not interested either, which distinguishes me and, I suspect, most 'English' people (I suppose I must so designate myself although, like many of us, my ancestry is not exclusively or predominantly English) from Scottish and Welsh nationalists. What we have is pretty much OK, isn't it? Regional assemblies where there is a demand for them but not otherwise.

The Conservatives are proposing a change. By saying "English votes for English laws" they are proposing to create an English parliament within the national parliament.

If they are successful, it's an excellent move for them, it'll ensure that they "rule" England unless there is a large shift in English political allegiance and by keeping it in the Westminster parliament it reduces the likelihood of fringe right wing parties making some headway.
 
They tried regional assemblies before, remember, and no one was interested.

In fact, even though many people weren't interested in London's devolution from the UK, it was still pushed through anyway because those who turned out to vote voted the Right WayTM.
 

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