Never mind the European constitution, what about the British one? Evidence of the wretched state of our own arrangements is all around us.
The House of Commons is quite useless at scrutinising legislation and amending it accordingly.
My experience on one "standing committee", covering the criminal justice bill, was enough to convince me of this. Whole clauses were not even debated because time was too short. Changes of huge significance, such as storing DNA from anyone who is taken to a police station, were introduced at the last minute and discussed for less than an hour.
Down the corridor in the House of Lords the government may face a more challenging time, but as the upper house is now almost entirely made up of appointed peers it lacks genuine legitimacy.
The Conservative party is always in danger of letting its reverence for our institutions translate into a dignified silence about constitutional reform. It is time we spoke out.
Don't get me wrong. Two years into this job I have not lost faith with the British way of doing things. Much of its job, parliament does very well. Our one-member, one-constituency system ensures excellent representation for every part of the country. The Commons is a great place for raising concerns, questioning ministers, discovering information and debating important issues.
But there is a lot that is seriously wrong. The failure to scrutinise laws. The power of the whips and patronage. The illegitimate second chamber. And the unchecked growth of government from both Whitehall and Brussels.
What would a package of Conservative constitutional reform look like? Here goes:
1. Lords' reform
A botched job that we didn't start, but we must finish. Legitimacy flows from elections and we must restate our commitment to a majority elected house. Conflict between the houses could be limited by making the second chamber a senate, rather than a mirror. Taking out all the ministers, insisting on a single term of 15-year duration and setting out down the powers to reject, delay and question in clear detail would be a pretty good start.
But the real problem is not the Lords, but the Commons. After all, they actually scrutinise legislation, we just pass it.
2. Independence for the Commons
The central problem is the government's complete control of the Commons timetable. There is no balance between the government's right to get its way and the Commons right to scrutinise. Labour's routine timetabling of all bills, the reform of the hours and abolition of all late sittings has made this far worse. Time and again the Speaker is asked for more time, yet all he can say is "these are not matters for me".
Why not have an all-party committee, elected by MPs, to adjudicate? If the whips kept control those elected would effectively be "named and shamed" for not doing their job properly.
3. Voting by secret ballot on standing committees.
Sounds insignificant, but goes to the heart of the problem. We debate laws line by line, but votes are then whipped. During the criminal justice bill Labour MPs would make valiant speeches about why a clause was wrong-headed, only to vote for it as soon as a division was called. Even if amendments were overturned in the chamber, the government would have to explain why it was going against the considered opinion of MPs.
4. Election of select committee members
Everyone agrees that select committees do a great job and should be nurtured. They ought to provide an alternative career path to the greasy pole of ministerial office. But members are chosen by an opaque process owing more to patronage than performance. The fiercely independent and effective Chris Mullin has just left the home affairs select committee to become a minister. Heaven knows who we will be sent in his place. Why not guarantee places for all parties, including the minor ones and then let backbenchers vote for their colleagues?
5. Referendum provision
I am no fan of what can be the "dictator's weapon", and referendums should have a very limited place in a representative democracy. But it seems to me a pretty good principle that elected representatives should not give up the powers they were elected to wield without asking the people who elected them first.
At least the wretched Maastricht treaty was clearly set out in the Conservatives' 1992 manifesto; the new constitution was never mentioned in Labour's effort for 2001. 6. Fixed-term parliaments
If we are looking for ways to redress the balance between a weak legislature and an over-mighty executive, five-year fixed-term parliaments could play a role. A government that lost the confidence of the house could still be forced to dissolve parliament through a vote of confidence.
7. Limits on ministers, bills and taxes.
We may not scrutinise it, but we sure as hell pass enough of it. The Home Office is the most incontinent department, having produced some 10 criminal justice bills since 1997 - and to what end?
Budgets get thicker, taxes get heavier, lists of ministers and their advisers get ever longer. A proper, more independent House of Commons would get to grips with this, but why not set down some limits so that ministers are suitably embarrassed if they have to come back and ask permission to break them?
8. War powers act
The Iraq debate set a precedent: it is hard to imagine any government going to war now without a vote in the Commons. But the fact remains that it does not need to seek one. It should.
9. A written constitution
What! Isn't it sacrilege for a Conservative to question our age-old, time-proven "unwritten" constitution that has evolved and adapted so superbly down the ages?
I am beginning to think not. How do we know that freedoms won through the Magna Carta, the bill of rights or anywhere else are under threat? Because we know what they say. Our constitution is being assaulted by an overweening government on the one hand, and a burgeoning Brussels bureaucracy on the other. Is it such a revolutionary concept to suggest that it could, just possibly, be time to write the thing down on a piece of paper?
Re: The United Kingdom Elections 2010
Originally Posted by Furunculus
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