QM, I don't think it can be plainer whether it applies to the West Lothian question or not:
> Scottish votes were decisive in getting the measures through
As to your question "Can you tell me of an occasion when ANY vote on purely English matters has been successful or unsuccessful because of Scottish MPs' votes
though all the English MPs voted the other way?" - that is indeed a red herring, because it isn't the West Lothian question. But just to throw some numbers in so we can look at "fairness" ...
Of the 650 MPs in Westminster, 533 are for English consituencies and 59 are for Scottish. The population of England at 53M is almost exactly 10 times the population of Scotland at 5.3M, yet England has far fewer than 10 times the MPs of Scotland, i.e. the Scottish population has a greater representation in the UK parliament than the English population, as well as having its own parliament that the English population does not have.
If we consider just one region of England: the population of the North West of England is 7 million, greater than that of Scotland on its own, yet it has far less of a say in Westmisnter and the national politics than Scotland.
The following English regions have populations greater than Scotland's 5.3M:
- South East England: 8.6M
- Greater London: 8.1M
- North West England: 7M
- East of England: 5.8M
- West Midlands: 5.6M
In addition, both the South West of England and Yorkshire and the Humber have populations only just under that of Scotland.
So - does Scotland have its fair say in national politics? More than fair, I would say.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_the_countries_of_the_United_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_Westminster_MPs#Number_of_MPs_by_country