Cameron takes on the Andy Murray question

A letter to the Evening Standard.

Sir,

Anne McElvoy's contention that Ken Clarke's Democracy Task Force "paves the way to a manifesto commitment to address the English Question" (Cameron takes on the Andy Murray question) leads me to suppose that she's been enjoying too much champagne with her strawberries on Centre Court.

Ken Clarke's solution is a purely a technical contrivance to mitigate the West Lothian Question, a question that arises from asymmetric voting privileges; it does not seek to answer the much broader English Question, a question that asks how England should be governed, by whom and for whom. Only the English can answer that question, but unlike the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish we are never asked because, allegedly, an English parliament will break apart the UK.

It's plausible that the West Lothian Question is an anomaly that the English are prepared to tolerate in order to preserve the Union, but it has become party-politicised due to the English bias of the Tories and the Celtic bias of Labour. So Clarke's solution should be seen as a wrecking mechanism to protect a Conservative opposition against a Labour Government, rather than a democratic safeguard for the English or an attempt to give England a national voice.

Yesterday when Clarke said "Gordon Brown is very unpopular, but his unpopularity has nothing to do with his Scottishness… it is the man, his personality and his measures that have made him so unpopular", he was only partially correct. English voters do not despise Brown because he is Scottish but his unpopularity is a function of his Scottishness. Much of Gordon Brown's legislation does not affect his own constituents, whether it's Foundation Hospitals, Tuition Fees or planning for Eco-Towns and Nuclear power stations in England only, and so we resent him for his measures and the constitutional and financial favouritism his government shows to his own people.

When the English are extended the same constitutional sovereignty that has been afforded to Scotland, so that we can decide how we wish to be governed and by whom, we might take a more lenient view of the anti-English japes of Scots like Andy Murray.

Just for the record I've forgiven Andy Murray for his sins. He was only 18 or 19 when he made his 'anti-English' comments, and even then he was only copying Jack McConnell who was being anti-English for political gain. Time for people to give him a break, even if he is a dullard...But enough about Jack McConnell.