Graham Stuart, Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness and Chairman of the Fair Votes for All campaign, this evening will lead a group of fellow MPs in presenting to Parliament petitions calling for English votes for English laws.
Petitions have been raised in over 60 constituencies across England, collecting thousands of signatures.
Presenting his petition in the House of Commons Chamber, Graham will say:
“In just a few weeks there will be a General Election at which we will face a decisive choice on a number of important issues.”
“One of these is whether the people of England should be allowed to determine their own destiny in areas where decisions have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, or whether MPs representing Scottish constituencies should continue to be allowed to decide issues that have no effect whatever on their constituents.”
“On this side of the House, we have set out our proposals to ensure basic democratic fairness for England. The Opposition of course are silent.”
“They want to maintain the flexibility to strike a cosy deal backed by Nationalist MPs who want to tear our country apart. And so this issue is one they would prefer to avoid. That will not satisfy the thousands of people who have signed this petition, and whose voice is heard tonight.”
This whole campaign is completely disingenuous and is designed to ensure a Tory majority in England: nothing more, nothing less. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland votes for their parliaments are cast on a proportional representation basis. In other words, if you get 30% of the votes, you get 30% of the seats. Rather than campaigning for a similar system in England, Mr Stuart is trying to ensure that only English MPs vote on perceived English issues. However, this hides a gross inconsistency in the way that the first past the post political system works: a system that will become even more grossly unrepresentative if this idea ever becomes law. In the UK we have 650 constituencies of which about 120 decide general elections – so called marginal seats. This means that in 530 constituencies it is not worth voting, i.e. you are disenfranchised. This is the true democratic deficit in the UK and especially England yet Mr Stuart is doing nothing to address this and ensuring that all votes cast throughout the UK are equal. Instead he wants to ensure that some votes are more equal than others. So much for democracy!
Probably not relevant here,
but I received a letter from Mr. Stuart this morning telling me that he will support fracking.