By "equal devolution throughout the UK" I presume you mean that each nation of the UK ought to have its own national parliament and government. I agree.

The West Lothian Question couldn't be easier to answer. England needs it's parliament back. There problem sorted.

Of course that would leave nearly 700 British MPs with virtually nothing to do as 90% of legislation is devolved. The best answer to that is to slash the number of UK MPs. A figure of around 90% should do the trick.

An English parliament could be a third of the size of the UK parliament and it would still give the English better representation. An English parliament would be better for everyone in England and would save a fortune by cutting the number of UK MPs - win, win.

I am puzzled by the scenario you use to illustrate the West Lothian Question, Stuart. You seem to envisage a Labour Govt with 15 Scottish seats. Labour already holds 40 of the 59 Scottish seats and in your scenario the SNP would probably have to gain 20 seats which would mean, hey presto, Scotland could seek independence.
You also write as if the WLQ has never been tested in practice. It has. You must surely be aware that the Govt imposed top-up tuition fees, foundation hospitals, 42-day detention, changes in planning laws, the 3rd runway at Heathrow against English majorities by calling on its Scottish MPs 'not to destabilise the Govt'. (Remember that it also has 29 out of 40 seats in Wales as well.)
It is not so much to be feared therefore that an incoming Govt would be unable to carry its health and education policies for what you unhelpfully call 'the rest of the UK (that is, England) - this is something to be welcomed. It has no business forcing policies on England that are opposed by majority of English MPs.
The other problem I have with your otherwise reasonable analysis is the one that Toque put his finger on. You seem to overlook that England is a nation. The English do not wish to see their country divided up into equal sized regions and at the same time denied any national political means of expression. That would reduce England to the position of Poland in the 18th century - partitioned. Hence the massive 78% vote against the NE elected assembly in 2004. In the most recent official survey, however, over 60% wish to exclude Scots and Welsh MPs from voting at Westminster on English-only matters. This reform is necessary and long overdue.

Stuart,

You're correct to say that there is there isn't the political will in England for any devolved parliament but that's not the same as saying that there is no demand for an English parliament.

It is politically inconvenient for the main three parties to discuss the English Question because it raises awkward questions. About Britain, not England. What is left that is British if England and Wales are given the same political autonomy as Scotland?

Increasingly the BBC are differentiating between England and Britain and now actually pick politicians up for talking about “British hospitals” or “teaching British history in British schools” when they are discussing English Health policy or changes to the English national curriculum.

Articles such as this one are still rare but it is now commonplace for the BBC to state the territorial extent of the political stories it covers. The next step is to force politicians into saying England, instead of referring to ‘Britain’ or ‘this country’ or ‘our country’ when discussing something that has nothing to do with Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Last week the Tories actually put out a story that stipulated that they were discussing England, which was something of a first.

It’s awkward for them to have to do this because they like to pretend that devolution hasn’t happened, unless, of course, they are talking to Scottish or Welsh audiences.

England is gradually waking up to the fact that Britain is no longer the unitary state that the English, for the large part, believed it to be prior to 1997. The main three political parties will continue to emphasise "Britishness" and ignore English national identity, but the numbers who call themselves English before British will continue to rise despite their efforts. In the Moreno test on national identity those opting for only or mainly English have risen markedly from 24% in 1997 to 31% in 1999 and 33% in 2007 whilst those opting only or mainly British only have risen slightly from 23% in 1997 to 25% in 1999 and 26% in 2007.

The big question for the future of the Union is, what if the English decide that English identity and British identity are not synoymous; will they then decide that English and British government need to be separated out?