TORY Leader of the Commons William Hague has confirmed that his party intends to play the “English card” in the general election campaign.

His proposal to give English MPs a veto over England-only legislation in tax, education and health matters is not new. It’s one of the four options he outlined last December when the Tories were spooked by the large pro-independence vote in Scotland and two by-election victories for Ukip.

By giving fresh prominence to the English part of the constitutional question, the Tories hope to broaden their appeal to English voters of every class, halting the slide to Ukip and capitalising on Labour’s lack of clear, principled policies on constitutional as well as many economic and social issues.

Parading around in the St George’s flag will not go down too well in Scotland and Wales, of course, but the Conservative and Unionist (sic) Party has all but abandoned the former, while Welsh Tories seem happier than ever to embrace the Welsh Red Dragon banner.

It would be too easy to dismiss the question of England’s place in any new constitutional settlement as a devious or irrelevant diversion. Hague’s English card may not turn out trumps, but neither is it likely to be a joker even though the dealer is both a clown and a card-sharp.

There are plenty of Tories who, together with Ukip, intend to stir up a sense of grievance among English electors. They whinge that Scotland and Wales are privileged, enjoying their own legislatures with the freedom to fritter away a London block grant on free NHS prescriptions, the abolition of tuition fees or the reintroduction of student maintenance grants.

In effect, the argument goes, the Scottish and Welsh governments are Kipling’s new harlots, wielding power without responsibility. Meanwhile, the MPs from those two countries continue not only to determine policies for England but to affect the composition of the British government itself.

It’s a spurious and self-serving line of argument which, if swallowed, could seriously undermine the prospects for working-class and progressive unity across Britain.

For most of the 20th century and into this, the people of England have had governments and policies far closer to their preferences at the ballot box than have the voters of Scotland and — even more so — Wales. With 82 per cent of Westminster seats, a united cohort of English MPs could never be overruled by their Welsh or Scottish colleagues.

But therein lies the point. All MPs reflect the fact that every nation and region exists in a class-divided society where genuine national unity is usually either impossible or wrong. Even when party leaders fundamentally agree in the interests of the ruling class, they have to exaggerate any differences in a genuflection to conflicting class interests.

The working people of all three countries have produced Britain’s wealth. Together they have subsidised Britain’s enormously wealthy and tax-dodging capitalist class.

Oddly enough, Scottish and Welsh nationalists would cut their countries off from a united struggle to redistribute that wealth to workers and their families throughout Scotland, Wales and England.

A constitutional settlement is required which devolves maximum powers and resources to Scotland, Wales and — where demanded — the English regions, so they can legislate for economic and social progress, while enhancing unity in the struggle to challenge the power and wealth of big business.

That would mean a federal Britain. It will not come about as the result of political opportunism from Labour head-counters, Scottish and Welsh separatists or Tory and Ukip English nationalists.