IAN Drury suggests floating voters may be persuaded to vote Labour in the belief that Gordon Brown will take over from Blair during the next parliament ('Brown's a vote-winner', April 8).
Not only is there no guarantee that this would happen, given Blair's penchant for untruths, but I wonder how many English voters realise that in Gordon Brown they would be getting a Scottish MP as Prime Minister with the power, for example, to use the Parliament Act to force through legislation relating solely to England, as happened with the fox hunting bill?
It was also the votes of Scottish MPs which enabled the Government to win important votes on the Foundation Hospitals Bill and the Higher Education Bill, introducing top-up fees, neither of which applied to Scotland which has its own devolved powers.
In 1999 the Government rejected recommendations of the House of Commons Procedures Committee to introduce special procedures for legislation relating exclusively to England. The Conservative Party has called for Scottish MP's to be barred from voting on Bills applying to England only.
Richard Starks,
The Green,
Elvington, York.
Updated: 10:08 Friday, April 15, 2005
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