The UK should take on board the lessons from Spain before embracing English devolution

The UK government has committed itself to solving the so called ‘West Lothian question’ whereby Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs can vote on ‘English only’ issues which have already been devolved to the other three countries. Sonia Alonso writes on devolution in Spain, arguing that the UK should learn from the Spanish experience. She states that Spain illustrates the dangers of adopting partisan solutions, which uniquely benefit one major party over another, to constitutional questions. However the country’s recent history also shows that devolution can work if implemented correctly and that both Labour and the Conservatives would stand to benefit from a stable compromise on English devolution.