England, Scotland and voting

If you set fire to your house, you can't blame the firemen for getting your carpet wet when the try to put it out.

Labour's attempts to divide and conquer have left us with an appalling political mish-mash. Our relationship with Scotland is becoming increasingly strained, somehow both the Scots and the English feel hard done by and the sibling rivalry could ultimately become attempted fratricide.

All these things were predicted and warnings were given yet Brown and Blair ploughed on regardless, putting party political advantage ahead of political integrity, no doubt. Rather than ring fence their Celtic political advantage Labour gave a huge boost to the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and penalised the English in the process.

It is not enough to bury your head in the sand, as Labour are doing, and just hoping it will all sort itself out. Ultimately the job of sorting out this mess will fall to the Conservatives. We are a unionist party and the underlying principle will always be to keep the UK together.

To have Labour accuse us of "risking the Union" would be laughable if it were not so insulting. We do not have a time machine, we cannot undo devolution, but we can look at ways of ensuring that all parts of the UK get a fair deal. It will probably not be a neat, tidy or easy solution but it will need to be found.

As I have said before, when it comes to sorting out the post devolution relationship, "I wouldn't start from here!"