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House of Commons (Participation) Bill

This has been a good debate. I agree that it has been worth while and I hope that it continues. As a number of hon. Members, including some of my hon. Friends, said that the constitutional settlement is not the best description of the arrangement because ““settlement”” suggests a permanence when it is in fact an evolving being. We should continue to return to it and consider the issues that are part of it. Let me quote to the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) someone he has described to me as a very serious heavyweight journalist. The view of Peter Riddell—he mentioned him to me not so long ago—is:"““The Conservatives’ attempt to play the English, or rather the anti-Scottish, card is in danger of backfiring…The question arises from the uneven, or asymmetrical, nature of devolution…Attacking the power of the Scots may appeal to a certain crude English nationalism, but it is weird and inconsistent coming from the party that has been committed to the preservation of the Union.””" He goes on, as the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson) did, to say:"““While English votes for English laws has an appealing ring, it is deeply flawed in practice; the basic problem is the relative size of England, which has more than four fifths of Britain’s population and number of MPs.””" A former Secretary of State for Scotland said:"““This proposal risks creating two classes of MP. It would be a constitutional abortion””." That was the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind). The shadow Secretary of State for Defence said:"““The Conservative party needs to remember it is a Unionist party…To claim that a Scottish MP would have difficulty in becoming Prime Minister plays into the hands of the nationalists.””" I fear that the two contributions from the official Opposition played into the hands of the nationalists. My hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead), in a serious and considered contribution, reminded the Conservatives that they made no mention of the anomaly of the relationship with Northern Irish MPs in this Parliament when Stormont sat in full force. Others also mentioned that. He was right to suggest gently to the Opposition’s taskforce on democracy that it should not go down that road. He gave a detailed analysis of the asymmetrical nature of our devolution when he described what happened with the Channel Islands and other places.