Let’s just put one simple fact on the table before moving on. At the last general election, the Conservative party polled more votes in England than Labour. It was the voters of Scotland and Wales that decided the shape and form of the current UK government and, as history shows quite clearly, very few Scots or Welsh vote Tory.

Yet despite this history, the current crop of limp wristed Tories under the leadership of Dopey Boy Dave are still bending over backwards trying to woo Scottish voters away from their traditional Labour loyalties and their shiny new SNP that is, let’s face it, going from strength to strength under the canny leadership of Alex Salmond. In fact, I can see the SNP, if they continue to play their cards right, cutting the Labour party down to size in Westminster next time around. Which just might, from an English perspective, be the match that finally ignites the big debate on the ‘West Lothian Question’ that Labour refuses to have and the Tories seem terrified of.

The odd thing here, of course, is that the Tories are in a prime position to make a rallying call on this issue. Their presence in Scotland and Wales is of such minimal importance that to concentrate their efforts on the English would be both representing their natural support base in an honest way and righting the wrong that Labour’s devolution settlements have caused. At the end of the day, a fairer and proper deal for England is inevitable so what better time to grasp the reins of history than now. Except that they are are showing themselves, as always, to be as limp-wristed as ever and apparently couldn’t find the reins if you tied Cameron up with them.

The big excuse, of course, is that the Tories want to ‘preserve the Union’ and that is actually an aim I have sympathy with. But what they seem unable to grasp – it’s the limp wrists again! – is that the Union can be preserved but that doesn’t mean that it has to remain constitutionally the same. With the current devolution settlement, the Union is under dire threat if nothing is done to redress the balance. I would argue that the Union can be retained and fair representation for all achieved. It just takes vision, passion and political honesty.

Sadly, these are attributes which do not belong to the current crop of Tory masters. Not only are they going to allow their Labour enemies to get away with the damage already inflicted – Scot-free you might say – but they are planning to exacerbate the situation by doing, essentially, nothing. Which plays nicely into the hands of Alex Salmond whose wrists, I might add, have never faltered.

England will not see proper representation under a future Tory led government. Even the unworkable but compromise notion of only letting English MP’s vote on English issues has been abandoned. Instead we just get the proposal that only English MP’s can sit in committee stage on English issues.

It is a lost opportunity for the Tories to regain the initiative, to create a big enough stick to beat Browns Scottish led government with and to reinvigorate political passion and debate in this country. And it is just another sad day for the English who once again are to be deprived of democratic representation.