Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/464860
AGRICULTURE EDITION 49 REVIEW OF PARLIAMENT | With the reputation of parliament badly damaged by revelations of abuse of expenses by MPs and Peers, the coalition promised in 2010 to bring in recall – an American style system allowing voters to unseat an MP 'Shabby pretence' or sensible compromise? MPs debate the Recall of MPs Bill Mr Hague was interrupted by the SNP's Angus MacNeil, who voiced his party's fear that the delivery of devolution would become hopelessly bogged down in the 'English Question'. He complained that the 'unconditional vow became conditional as the hangover set in'. Mr Hague retorted that the vow remained unconditional. The timetable was to produce cross-party agreement on a new devolution deal by 30 November, with draft clauses for a new devolution Bill published by the end of January 2015. And, crucially, he said the delivery of the Scottish proposals was not conditional on sorting out the English question. Labour's spokesman Sadiq Khan denounced the Prime Minister's call for EVEL as 'a top-down, Westminster-elitist solution', and a 'stitch-up'. Excluding their 40 Scottish MPs from voting on non-Scottish matters might make it difficult for a future Labour government to operate. Their alternative, he said, was enhanced devolution to the cities and regions of England. The key figure in the final phase of the referendum campaign was the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, the architect of 'the vow'. He warned that devolving complete control of income tax to Scotland, while stripping Scottish MPs of voting rights at Westminster, was a 'lethal cocktail' that would break the UK apart. He was challenged by the senior Conservative, John Redwood, who (borrowing the phrase once used to push for Scottish devolution) said EVEL was now the 'settled will of about three-quarters of the English people'. Mr Brown retorted that the Conservative proposal would make Scottish MPs second-class citizens in Westminster and turn the UK Parliament into 'a house divided', adding that there was nothing unusual about states with federal governing arrangements providing extra protection to the smaller parts of the country. Iain Stewart, a Conservative with an English constituency who grew up in Scotland, suggested that a failure to move to EVEL could endanger the Union – and Mr Brown did not disagree. The key was for Scots to continue to pay income tax at UK levels, and get the representation at Westminster too. No vote was held at the end of the debate, which was rather an exercise in testing the waters. And the waters were extremely muddy. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the key figure in the final phase of the referendum campaign, being the architect of 'the vow'