Editing West Lothian question (section)

==Background==
The equivalent question was raised by the opponents of [[Irish Home Rule]] in defeating [[William Gladstone]]'s [[Government of Ireland Bill 1886|first (1886)]] and [[Government of Ireland Bill 1893|second (1893)]] home rule bills. [[Basil Williams (historian)|Basil Williams]] enumerated four schemes which Gladstone proposed at various stages:<ref>{{cite book |title=Home rule problems|last=Williams |first=Basil|year=1911|publisher=P.S. King & Son|access-date=29 January 2018|location=London |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/homeruleproblems00will#page/162/mode/1up |chapter=The Exclusion Or Retention Of Irish Members In The Imperial Parliament |pages=162–177 }}</ref>
# Total exclusion of Irish members. 
# Inclusion of Irish members, in reduced numbers, for all purposes. 
# Inclusion of Irish members, in their full numbers, for certain specified purposes — the "In and Out" clause. 
# Inclusion of Irish members, in their full numbers, for all purposes — the ''Omnes Omnia'' (all people) clause.

The "West Lothian question" itself was first posed in 1977 during a British [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] debate about Scottish and Welsh [[devolution]] proposals. In the 14 November sitting, [[Tam Dalyell]], the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MP for the [[Scottish Westminster constituencies|Scottish constituency]] of [[West Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)|West Lothian]], asked,
<blockquote>For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate&nbsp;... at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and [[Northern Ireland]] exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1977/nov/14/scotland-bill#column_123|title=SCOTLAND BILL|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=23 February 2009|archive-date=19 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619111611/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1977/nov/14/scotland-bill#column_123|date=14 November 1977|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

To illustrate his point, Dalyell chose the example of a member of Parliament for West Lothian who could vote on matters affecting the English town of [[Blackburn, Lancashire]], but not on matters concerning [[Blackburn, West Lothian]] in his own constituency. The name "West Lothian question" was later coined by the [[Ulster Unionist]] MP [[Enoch Powell]] in a response to Dalyell's speech, when he said "We have finally grasped what the Honourable Member for West Lothian is getting at. Let us call it the West Lothian question."<ref name=BBC-Q&A>{{cite news |last=Reid |first=Tim |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14834752 |work=BBC News |title=Q&A: The West Lothian Question |publisher=BBC |date=13 September 2011 |access-date=9 July 2013 |archive-date=18 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718185118/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14834752 |url-status=live }}</ref> The question is more commonly assumed to refer to the anomaly that came into being in 1999, with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland members at Westminster allowed to vote upon English matters, but MPs for English constituencies having no influence on affairs which were devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14834752|title=Q&A: The West Lothian Question|work=BBC News|date=13 September 2011|publisher=BBC|access-date=20 June 2018|archive-date=11 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111103846/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14834752|url-status=live}}</ref> Dalyell was a vocal opponent of Scottish devolution in the [[1979 Scottish devolution referendum|1979]] and [[1997 Scottish devolution referendum|1997]] plebiscites. A devolved [[Scottish Parliament]] was created in [[1999 Scottish Parliament election|1999]] after a clear majority voted in favour of devolution in the second referendum.

===Legal status===
The Scottish Parliament was formed by statute, the [[Scotland Act 1998]], and is thus a creation of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]]. No sovereign status on the Scottish Parliament is conferred, and the act has not changed the status of the Westminster Parliament as the supreme legislature of Scotland, with Westminster retaining the ability to override, or veto, any decisions taken by the Scottish Parliament. The Westminster Parliament remains the sovereign body; powers are ''devolved'' rather than transferred to the Scottish Parliament. The ability of all Westminster MPs to vote on Scottish legislation has not been legally diminished by devolution, as made clear by Section 28(7) of the Scotland Act 1998, which states that the legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament do "not affect the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Scotland".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/80046--c.htm#28 |title=Scotland Act, section 28(7) |publisher=Opsi.gov.uk |date=18 February 2011 |access-date=26 February 2011 |archive-date=18 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518003613/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/80046--c.htm#28 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Legislation relating to ''[[reserved issues]]'' such as [[defense (military)|defence]], [[national security]], [[foreign policy]] and [[monetary]] and economic issues are voted on by all the MPs at Westminster to ensure consistency across the whole of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament is not able to pass laws on these issues itself, as they were not devolved. The West Lothian question is not involved in this situation, as all parts of the Union have a say roughly proportional to their population and all are equally affected.

During [[devolution]], a convention was created to manage the power of Westminster to legislate on matters within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. This is known as the Sewel Convention, and the related Scottish parliamentary motions are now known as [[legislative consent motion]]s (previously Sewel motions).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Sewel/Introduction |title=Sewel Motions |website=[[Scottish Government]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032452/http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Sewel/Introduction |archive-date=14 October 2013}}</ref> These motions (of which there are around a dozen per year) allow MPs to vote on issues which, among other things, are within the Scottish Parliament's legislative competence. The Sewel Convention states that the Westminster Parliament will not normally legislate on devolved matters in Scotland without first obtaining the consent of the Scottish Parliament.