Not content with the brush off he received in response to his earlier question, Lord Stoddart has again raised the subject of an English parliament:
Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Independent Labour)
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Lord Wallace of Tankerness on 7 March (WS 145) on the Welsh referendum, whether they will bring forward legislation enabling the English to decide through a referendum whether they are in favour of establishing an English Parliament.
Lord McNally (Minister of State, Justice; Liberal Democrat)
As the noble Lord is aware the coalition programme for government committed the Government to establishing a commission to consider the West Lothian question. An English Parliament has been proposed in the past as a solution to the West Lothian question. It would be open to the commission, once established, to consider this as part of its review.
(Hat-tip: Kev)
According to the Number 10 website work has started on the Commission into the West Lothian Question, yet I still don't have answers to some very basic questions:
- Will the Commission be independent; to whom will it be answerable?
- Will the Commission be considering the option of scrapping the Barnett Formula, and the option of establishing an English parliament?
- Who will be the Chair and how will the Committee members be chosen?
- How much will the Commission cost?
- Will it be a closed shop or can an ordinary member of the public, such as myself, get involved?
What are you doing Mark Harper, how on earth can it take you such a long time to set up a commission? In December 2010 I was told that there would be an announcement on the West Lothian Commission in the New Year. So where is it? Have you decided to leave England hanging until the elections to the Scottish Parliament are over and the Scotland Bill is passed?