Reform Parliament

Top People are mucking about with the British Constitution. They seek to pack the House of Lords with Tories and Liberals, and make it more difficult, via the proposed 55 percent rule, to remove an unpopular government.

“Oh, but we don’t have a Constitution!” is a standard response, implying there’s nothing for Top People, or anyone else, to muck about with.

Wrong. Britain has a written Constitution. It consists of bits of paper, some very old, hidden away in the Cabinet Office, the House of Commons library and the Palace archive.

The problem with these bits of paper – the British Constitution – is that the populous, those whose lives are governed by it, We the People, have never been asked if we agree with it. Which explains, in part, why Top People believe they can amend it without asking.

We were told repeatedly, during and after the election campaign, and again this morning on The Today Programme by Theresa May, the new Home Secretary, that we’re entering a period of ‘new politics.’ Indeed, Ms May sounded quite pleased with the idea and commended it to Mr Humphrys.

Fine. But might the ‘new politics’ include a commitment to ask the people, via referendum, for their agreement before changing the British Constitution?

I know, I know, it’s a radical idea. We live in a constitutional monarchy not a republic. The government belongs to Her Majesty not the People.

But might the generalised distrust of politicians, the low voter turnout, the refusal to give one party an overall majority in the House of Commons, flow from a justified sense of outrage that the political class, fresh from the expenses scandal, fresh from permitting the bankers to wreck the economy, should treat the population with such high-handed contempt?

Interestingly, it’s the right-wing of the Conservative Party making the running in the argument for constitutional probity: David Davis writing in today’s Daily Telegraph. Mr Davis may be a lot of things but he’s no wild-eyed Republican.

Talking to a friend from the US recently in an internet chat room, we had the following exchange. I’ve tied it up slightly – typos and unpacked abbreviations – but it’s pretty much the original text.

BRIT: Our new government’s decided to “pack” the House of Lords. But Labour did it before them so it’s hard to complain…

YANK: That’s your upper house right?

BRIT: Yeah, like your Senate. But not elected

YANK: LOL……. but what d’you mean “packing”?

BRIT: They’re making their chums Lords so they can outvote Labour

YANK: What, just appointing them? No election?

BRIT: Yup

YANK: And these guys can legislate?

BRIT: Yup. They’re going to bring in the biggest cuts since the 1930s

YANK: But what about your Constitution? You’re talking major constitutional change…

BRIT: We haven’t got a Constitution! Well, we have but it’s not written down. Or if it is written down it’s a state secret. Only the Queen is allowed to read it.

YANK: Jesus

BRIT: IT’S TRUE!

YANK: You mean some fly-by-night politician can change the British Constitution over a “cup of tea?”

BRIT: Yup

YANK: No wonder they won’t let you carry concealed weapons!!

BRIT: It gets worse. They’ve changed the arithmetic for a vote of confidence. It was 50% +1. Now it’s 55% +1. It means the government can’t be brought down except if one of their own MPs votes against them

YANK: Decided over a “cup of tea”?

BRIT: Yup

YANK: Poor Brits! If they tried that here ten thousand rednecks would storm Capitol Hill

BRIT: It’s an international humiliation…

YANK: But we gave the world George W Bush…

The Houses of Parliament are Britain’s premier public institution. They make the law. They take the country to war. They raise taxes, run the economy and spend billions.

Yet Parliament is rotten. A discredited electoral system ensures MPs fail to represent the political will of the people. The House of Lords is unelected and contains legislators chosen in accordance with their parents’ sexual habits. MPs moonlight in outside jobs. Lobbyists and political paymasters are out of control. There is no written Constitution.

This blog grew from the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal. It campaigns for constitutional change and asks how a reformed Parliament might be achieved. It invites readers to join the debate, here and at the Politics Worldwide Forums.