to believe we should have a fully federal UK

[longfingernails]

Much as it pains me to say it, the United States currently represents a more perfect union than ours. Now that major constitutional change for Britain looks inevitable, let's do it properly (i.e. not like Gordon Brown's moronic ideas).

Westminster should have responsibility for national security, immigration, and the federal budget. We would elect a Prime Minister directly; they would control an executive. We would further elect a Parliament (like the Senate) who would control the purse strings, initiate legislation, and hold the Prime Minister to account. We would also elect the House of Lords as a purely revising chamber using proportional representation on 10 year rolling terms.

Then we would have English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish assemblies. Each would have a directly elected First Minister (like governors in the US).

Each assembly would have its own (limited) borrowing powers, and control over health/education/community policing/further education policy.

There would be a clear separation between federal taxes/spending, and national level taxes/spending.

Furthermore, the same structure (with clear executive/legislative separation) should be pushed further downwards too. Let's have more directly elected mayors.

Britain's devolution structure has not been well designed at all (goes without saying, as it was designed to be a Labour stitch up, but they even screwed that up). Let's do it properly.

Well, Longfingernails, you clearly know everything, so reveal your identity, stand for Parliament and show us how it is done. (Perhaps you are already).
You should go far with such confidence, combined with a fair amount of ignorance.

Regions don't have to be foisted by the EU. There's a precedent in Pre-Norman England. Northumbria covers everything (roughly) north of Lancashire to the Scottish border; Mercia stretches down through the Midlands to the Cotswolds or thereabouts; East Anglia is, well, East Anglia, then there's Essex, Wessex and Kernow right down in the west. IMO these regions are a reasonable size and should be run in a properly federal way with local power over everything except foreign policy and a handful of other truly national matters. Northumbria and Mercia could then have their permanent Labour rule, Easex and Wessex could have their preferred Tories and Kernow could go Lib Dem if it wanted. The regions are all then about the same size so you don't get the usual Scottish complaints about being overruled by the bigger neighbour. And because these regions actually were nations at an earlier point in our history it's not a totally arbitrary set of divisions.

Yanbu, I agree with everything you say. Especially that the Scots shouldn't be allowed to vote on English issues.

I dread seeing Cameron and Co pandering to the Scots now...should have cut them loose :-)

I think it's very complicated. Watching the Scottish referendum coverage, a lot of English MPs were talking about the changes needed in England when Scotland gets more power. The Welsh representatives also felt they needed change in Westminster, as the Barnett formula is unfair to Wales as well as England.

I think, however, the different regions of England need some representation on a local scale. I'm not suggesting full devolution, but perhaps similar powers as are held by the London assembly? I think the needs of different parts of England don't match up, and more rural areas are often neglected.

It will be interesting to see what the parties put forward for the rUK at the next election. I don't think any of them can just ignore the "English question".

Gordon Brown is an arsehole and should be ignored at all costs.

On paper, what you're suggesting sounds like the best compromise. It would be interesting to see how it worked.

I doubt you will find many who disagree with at least one of your points, cherrybombxo

Some may have been reminded of the Return of Godzilla, as I was, as they witnessed the strutting about the stage and more ham acting than in any repertory tragicomedy from the Shakespearean stage. I don't know about arse, it was a farce.

It wasn't Thatcher's "The Mummy Returns", it was more like "The Dummy Returns".

Gawd help us all.

Cameron has been magnanimous in his speech today. It looks like Labour are predictably campaigning against the English votes for English laws approach (with the honourable exception of John Denham); they won't get very far with that with the English electorate I think.

I have lived here in the States for over a decade now and I certainly wouldn't describe it as a perfect union! The gridlock in congress right now is a pretty good sign of how well it's going. The problem is that people are not as fairly represented as you might think. Take guns for example, every poll taken shows a clear majority support for greater gun control, a ban on assault weapons etc... Why doesn't congress pass such bills? Because the legislative branch of government is set up in such a way that ithe senate for example, is comprised of 2 representatives from every state regardless of population, so extremely pro-gun but tiny states have the same weight as say, California. This unequal influence also affects other issues, the mandate for access to contraception for women, abortion, gay rights etc...

On the other hand, states have much greater latitude to legislate their own affairs so if you are liberal like me you can choose to reside in a liberal state or vice versa if you are conservative.

I don't know the answer, as Churchhill said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others..."

OP, you are a berk.

Good god no

This is how we end up with things like the healthcare postcode lottery. The needs of the people aren't that different. Money needs to be allocated by need, not to regions.

I like Gordon Brown so that really and yabu

Rainbunny The US is by no means perfect - and in many ways Parliament is much better than Congress - for example, Prime Minister's Questions works very well. But in the US at least it is fairly clear who is responsible for what decision in a logically coherent manner.

Here we currently have the Scots and Welsh spending without taking responsibility for taxing (which will certainly change) and also Scottish/Welsh MPs allowed to vote on England only legislation. It's because the current devolution settlement is a complete fudge. We need to clean it up.

notallytuts I like postcode lotteries - the less Orwellian name for postcode lotteries is local decision making.

If a Green council wants to collect bins using bicycling binmen, then they should be able to. If a (hypothetical) UKIP council wants to collect bins in trucks emblazoned with the Union Jack, they should be able to. If a Labour council wants to have fully unionised bin collection run inefficiently and bureaucratically by the council itself, they should be able to.

Decisions should be made at the lowest possible power level where they make sense (but not lower). In general I think the level of decision making is too high at the moment.