It doesn’t seem that William Hague has offered a decisive answer to the West Lothian question today. Indeed, judging by the reaction of the SNP and Tory MPs, the proposal that the Conservative Leader of the House has set out is encouraging many more questions.
These questions include ‘just how much havoc can the SNP still wreak in Westminster’ – something that Tory MPs are asking but one the SNP will surely be voicing in private too. Or ‘how much more devolution can we wrangle from Westminster?’ – something the SNP is saying quite publicly, with Stewart Hosie saying ‘until income tax – for example – is devolved in full, it is illogical and wrong for anyone to carve Scottish MPs out of important decision-making’. Hosie added that ‘paradoxically William Hague has actually made the case today for full fiscal devolution’.
Tory MPs accept in private that they won’t cause trouble about today’s announcement because they don’t want to jeopardise their party’s chances in the General Election.
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