Bring Back the Old Ways

For John, BLUF:  You can't make everyone happy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The vote last week on Scottish Independence has stirred up some interest in giving the English a little self-governance.  Over at Samizdata Poster Natalie Solent demands we "Restore the heptarchy!".

For the unlettered among you, the heptarchy is a collective name for the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, Dorne, the Kingdom of the Isles and Rivers, the Kingdom of Monuntain and Vale, the Kingdom of the North, the Westerlands or Kingdom of the Rock, the Kingdom of the Reach, and the Kingdom of the Stormlands …

Bzzzt! Reset!

The heptarchy is a collective name for “the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east, and central England during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, conventionally identified as seven: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex.  The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms eventually unified into the Kingdom of England.”

Like you care?  You should.  Following the vow made to the Scots by David Cameron in order to win the referendum of devo max to the limit of my credit card, the West Lothian question has come back to bite him.

The West Lothian question is easy to ask and almost impossible to answer.  As posed in 1977 by Tam Dalyell, former MP for the Scottish constituency, it demands to know why MPs from Scotland (and now Wales and Northern Ireland) should be able to vote on issues such as health and education that affect England when English MPs have no power to vote on social and other policies that are devolved to the parliament in Edinburgh (and now also the assemblies in Cardiff [Wales] and Belfast [Northern Ireland]).

Because welfare issues are devolved, members of the Westminster parliament elected from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have no power to decide how these policies should affect their constituents; ironically, they can vote only on welfare issues as they affect constituencies in England.

Would this not be the ultimate revenge for that Frenchie, William the Bastard, beating King Herold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066?

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff