The Coalition Agreement in Full

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have published their agreement in full. If you were expecting, or hoping, for more details on the 'West Lothian Question Commission' you will be disappointed, because the full agreement says only this:

We will establish a commission to consider the ‘West Lothian question’.

No timescale and no details. Long grass territory.

Further thoughts.

On tonight's Question Time Caroline Flint made the point that a lot of commissions had been agreed to by the coalition government, essentially in areas where they did not agree. She's correct. And Cameron's hobbling of the 1922 Committee hints at an autocratic government that will prevent backbenchers from raising issues where there is no agreemen between the two parties. Having spent much of the last thirteen years in opposition being critical of Labour's attitude to the West Lothian Question and Barnett Formula, the Tories now appear to have kicked both of those issues into the long grass.

This is what they said in their manifesto:

Labour have refused to address the so-called ‘West Lothian Question’: the unfair situation of Scottish MPs voting on matters which are devolved. A Conservative government will introduce new rules so that legislation referring specifically to England, or to England and Wales, cannot be enacted without the consent of MPs representing constituencies of those countries.

The Liberal Democrat manifesto promised to "address the status of England within a federal Britain" through a "constitutional convention", and to replace the Barnett Formula with "a new needs-based formula, to be agreed by a Finance Commission of the Nations". And at the 2009 Liberal Democrat Conference the following policy motion was carried:

Conference calls for...Urgent initiatives to address the democratic deficit for England, and the replacement of the Barnett Formula for allocating funding to the countries of the UK with a needs-based formula.

On the Barnett Formula the new coalition agreement has this to offer:

We recognise the concerns expressed by the Holtham Commission on the system of devolution funding. However, at this time, the priority must be to reduce the deficit and therefore any change to the system must await the stabilisation of the public finances. Depending on the outcome of the forthcoming referendum, we will establish a process similar to the Calman Commission for the Welsh Assembly.

Having called for "urgent initiatives" and having bemoaned Labour's refusal to deal with these issues, they have kicked those very issues into the long grass themselves. This isn't new politics, this is old politics. We won't get the "English Votes on English Laws" that the Tories promised or the constitutional convention that the Lib Dems promised, instead we wait for a commission. Numerous bodies, committees and commissions have already looked into the WLQ, not least the Tories own 'Democracy Task Force'. What on earth can a commission to consider the West Lothian Question tell us that we do not already know? It's purely an exercise in delaying decisions that they do not want to take, and that they want us to have no say in.

It is despicable.

Having initially felt well-disposed towards the coalition government, I am now of the opinion that it needs to be brought down. England is obviously as low down on their priorities as it was for Labour, so after thirteen years of inaction under Labour we now face another five years of inaction under the Condemns. I suggest to English nationalists that at every opportunity you make the point that these policies were not what anyone voted for, that the coalition government has no mandate because the manifesto bears little relation to any manifesto that we read prior to the election, that this government is phoney. Help to ensure that the party that won the most seats in England cannot govern.