Letter to Douglas Alexander

Dear Mr Alexander,

I am writing for clarification on your comments regarding the West Lothian Question as reported in the Scotsman:

"The Government's position on the West Lothian Question is a matter of public record and the subject has been comprehensively debated inside and outside of parliament for a hundred years.
"The Government remains as committed now to devolution as it was in 1997, just as it remains committed to a single class of MP in the UK parliament."

Are you referring to Gladstone's flirtation with 'British Votes on British Matters' during the debate on Irish Home Rule, or are you drawing comparison between the West Lothian Question and the situation that existed between 1921 and 1972 when Northern Irish MPs could vote on British legislation at Westminster?

The 'West Lothian Question' - as coined by Powell and championed by Dayell - refers to voting powers of Scottish MPs over English legislation, and not to the voting powers of Irish MPs over British legislation. It was purely hypothetical, an irrelevance, until the Labour Government made the constitutional anomaly the very lynchpin of its devolution settlement.

Unlike the Northern Irish anomaly the unanswered WLQ has the power to destabalise the Union and create resentment between its constitutuent nations. The WLQ has only been a political reality for 9 years; the debate outside of parliament is only just beginning.

Regards,