[EL] Query relating to UK proposal to restrict voting on English policy to MPs from English electorates

[John Tanner]

In Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, where there is little “home rue” for cities and counties, the legislative delegations for the various counties determine all local legislation for their respective counties.  In Alabama and Georgia the bills are then passed by the full legislature as a matter of courtesy.  I believe that in South Carolina the local delegations’ passage is enough, but I defer to anyone who actually knows.

It seems that the vote failed because of fear of the disruptive effects of separation.  It looks now as if the new system will be disruptive - if indeed Cameron (and Labour) are actually serious about any transfer of power.  Cameron seems to be stalling - as the Liberals did with the Irish for many decades.  Perfidious Albion.  

On Sep 23, 2014, at 9:16 AM, Josh Douglas <joshuadouglas at uky.edu> wrote:

> Rob,
> 
> This isn't exactly the same, but three states, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Delaware, appoint a special committee of a subset of the legislature to resolve election contests for gubernatorial elections.  In Pennsylvania, for example, there is a unique winnowing process to create a subcommittee of 9 House members and 4 Senate members that will resolve the dispute.  In Delaware, each house chooses 1/3 of its members by ballot to decide the contest. In Iowa, each house selects seven of its members randomly to serve on the ““contest court.””  I discuss these in my article, Procedural Fairness in Election Contests, 88 Ind. L.J. 1 (2013).
> 
> Josh
> 
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Rob Richie <rr at fairvote.org> wrote:
> The Scotland referendum was fascinating in many ways -- extremely high turnout, much-applauded implementation of 16-year-old voting age, deeply substantive debate about balance of central and local power and more.
> 
> With momentum shifting toward independence, prime minister David Cameron and leaders of the other major parties in parliament rushed to promise greater devolution of power to Scotland. After the referendum vote, however, Cameron then proposed that this devolution of power would be twinned with taking power away from all MPs not elected in England from voting on policies limited to England.
> 
> In short, Cameron is trying to devolve power without creating a regional government. It seems fraught with peril to me, as it would change the dynamics of a legislature greatly if members couldn't negotiate with one another on every vote -- and it could lead to a puzzling situation where the Labour Party had an overall majority in parliament, but a minority in the English-only electorates. It's also leading to ideas for reforming how parliament would vote on English-only matters like this one in the Economist that tries to introduce proportional representation for English-only votes without changing single member districts ("Each English MP's vote could be weighted according to the total number of English voters who backed his party, ensuring proportional representation without breaking the constituency link. Smaller parties without MPs could provide representatives for such votes (perhaps from a list published before general elections) to ensure proportionality."
> http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2014/09/labour-and-english-only-votes
> 
> I was wondering if anyone knows of a precedent of a legislative body that doesn't allow all its members to vote on everything that comes before that body.
> 
> Thanks,
> Rob
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> -- 
> Joshua A. Douglas
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