Tam Dalyell

A Labour opponent of devolution, Dalyell posed the 'West Lothian question' in 1977: why should a Scottish MP vote on English matters when English MPs could not vote on the same matters in Scotland? He and George Cunningham, whose amendment required 40 per cent of the whole electorate to approve the 1979 referendum, helped sink the first devolution scheme, which won a narrow Yes vote but missed the threshold. His question was never answered, and 'English votes for English laws' was tried and abandoned decades later.