News from the New Party

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Brown's big idea

The Sunday Times reports that Gordon Brown's big idea for his forthcoming premiership is likely to be a commission to provide the United Kingdom with a written constitution. We would have thought that the last ten years would be evidence enough that this is territory best avoided by the Labour Party:

the prolonged fiasco of House of Lords reform, including the abolition and hasty reinstatement of the ancient post of Lord Chancellor;
the devolution "settlement" which has so damaged the unity of the realm that even an increasing number of English people are clamouring for Scottish independence;
a Human Rights Act which has seized sovereignty from Parliament and delivered it into the hands of an increasingly activist judiciary;
an elected Mayor of London who uses his post to conduct his own foreign policy (not to mention the election of a monkey as Mayor of Hartlepool); etc.

The Sunday Times suggests that the putative new constitution might set its sights on those British institutions to which the Labour government has yet to take its axe: the royal prerogative and the Church of England, for example. One might also suppose that our relationship with the European Union, and perhaps even the United Nations might also be defined within the terms of the new document.

The New Party profoundly hopes that Gordon Brown, if he succeeds Tony Blair, settles on a less dangerous big idea between now and the summer. The damage done by ill-conceived constitutional tinkering is clear to see, and the attempt to cast yet more changes in stone in a written constitution which even Parliament itself cannot change, would be potentially disastrous for British democracy and freedoms. Instead the New Party proposes that present constitutional laws, treaties and conventions be reaffirmed in a Constitution Act, the advantage of which is that it would be subject to amendment by the House of Commons, and would act as a brake on reckless constitutional change, whether by design or drift. Furthermore, a New Party government would issue a Declaration of Sovereignty to restore all powers to the UK Parliament and courts.

We do not believe that the UK constitution should be set in stone forever. However, we do believe that any constitutional change should be approached thoughtfully and with due care and attention. See here for more details of the New Party's proposals for governmental and constitutional reform.

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Brown's big idea