Semi-Partisan Politics

 

The idea that Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish MPs should no longer be able to vote on matters affecting only England when devolution prevents any English reciprocity is the only reasonable, logical viewpoint for a British citizen to hold – particularly in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum.

One might expect that a political party so self-avowedly obsessed with promoting “fairness” would recognise this universal truth, and work swiftly to ensure that the new reality comes to pass.

But Ed Miliband’s Labour Party has many priorities, and advancing this most fundamental form of constitutional fairness is very far down the list. Indeed, it is almost universally viewed as a threat.

The status quo keeps alive the possibility of a future Labour government in Westminster, while ensuring that a Conservative UK government is prevented as much as possible from interfering with any left-wing policies that take shape in the devolved assemblies.

Throughout this week’s Labour Party annual conference in Manchester there was much talk of the need for generosity and mutual understanding in the inevitable British constitutional discussions following the “No” vote in last week’s Scottish independence referendum.

Generosity, the conference was told, was to be afforded to the defeated nationalists, the disillusioned youth and even the turncoat Liberal Democrats at one point.

In short, everyone was still to have a say in Britain’s future apart from conservative-leaning people and the Conservative party itself, who will always be the “Effing Tories” in Labour’s mind. The Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Owen Smith, effectively revealed Labour’s hand in his own speech:

Because though devolution is not an end in itself – but it can be a means to an end. A means to revitalise faith in politics. And protect the gains we make when Labour Governments secure progress.

Why is this so?

Because for the British left, Scottish independence or questions of constitutional reform have been viewed almost entirely through the prism of keeping right-wing thinking and ideas permanently out of power and in the wilderness – or “locking in left wing gains and achievements” as Owen Smith put it.

(The idea of constitutional reform to guarantee the liberty and happiness of the people, to allow the most seamless and effective working of government or to ensure that the United Kingdom “makes sense” as a sovereign country of distinct home nations is barely even considered).

How sad that the majority of the British left apparently feel literally no solidarity or allegiance to those with differing political views. For them, any act of constitutional vandalism or political shenanigans are justified to lock out opposing viewpoints, as evidenced now by Ed Miliband’s professed and desperate desire to avoid a quick resolution to the ‘English question’ and to maintain Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish votes on English-only matters in the Westminster parliament for as long as possible.

But when did political affiliation trump everything else, including our shared Britishness? This blogger’s own political leanings are toward the classically liberal – advocating a small, non-interventionist government both socially and economically. But I would rather tolerate long-term Labour government, often acting against my interests and beliefs, than see my country fracture into pieces, even if it did mean I didn’t see my personal political preferences advanced in England.

Conservatives accepted this very same sacrifice as they suffered through thirteen years of New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But for them, the preservation of the union and heritage in which we all share was worth accepting the temporary prevalence of unpalatable political views. There was no mass movement to hive off Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland just to silence left wing voices and ensure that Margaret Thatcher’s legacy could be preserved at its apex.

It is tremendously sad – and telling – that many on the British political left do not feel the same, now we are in the age of Cameron.