Suppression of and damage to English national identity must be addressed. It is a question of restoring balance to the Union, not encouraging a English separatist agenda. Given Devolution we must deal speedily with the West Lothian question and provide England with better control of its affairs restoring a sense of purposeful nationhood in England.

The fundamental English contribution to Britishness lies in our law and in our freedom under it. From the Saxon moot court, Magna Carta through the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and onwards, freedom under the law has been central to what English, and with it British national identity, is all about.

The Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, who have not suffered the same cultural neglect as have the English, appear to be more comfortable with their own identity and better able to celebrate it than the English.

There is a widespread perception that England is now disadvantaged and disempowered by new national institutions that give special privileges to all except the English. It is this as much as the narrower West Lothian question that produces problems.

The relentless undermining of English national consciousness has been marked. English heroes and heroines from King Alfred and Henry Vth, through Nelson, Florence Nightingale, John Wesley, Shaftsbury and Lawrence of Arabia are largely forgotten.

While Labour Governments and left leaning commentators have earnestly emphasised the contribution of other nations and cultures to our polity, the one group that has received a disproportionate amount of opprobrium is the English and the English make up 85% of the population.

The British state in its old constitutional form was the English state adapted to encompass the diversity of new participants. But that is a different thing to what we now have after devolution. There is a widespread perception that England is now disadvantaged and disempowered by new national institutions that give special privileges to all except the English.

Let us forget for a moment about the West Lothian question; the real question centres round the fact that a new United Kingdom is being created, yet there has been no consultation with the people of England….Instead we are offered vague ideas about constitutional reform in England, no test of whose acceptability has ever been seriously put forward or even canvassed.

As for regionalism, it is all murk. Does he also agree that they do not take account of English national identity? Had I suggested that Scotland should be split into two for regional government purposes, there would have been an outcry from the hon. Gentleman's Scottish colleagues on the devolution issue.

Popular sovereignty is a meaningless phrase. Everyone may assert sovereignty; ultimately it is a willingness to accept that there are structures, such as entities called countries, which are the foundations on which legal government can be conducted.