Synopsis: |
The Magna Carta has its 800th Anniversary next year, and the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, in this report, launches a major consultation into the shape of our democracy today. The Committee has been working on a major project with King's College London to develop several different visions of what a democratic settlement for the UK could look like. The research lays out three different models - including one fully fleshed out, complete constitution - and sets out some of the arguments for and against codifying the constitution. The UK has a mass of common law, Acts of Parliament, and European treaty obligations, and a number of important but uncertain and unwritten 'conventions' that govern administration, but the full picture is unclear and uncertain to electors in our democracy. It has become too easy for governments to implement political and constitutional reforms to suit their own political convenience. A written constitution would entrench requirements for popular and parliamentary consent and give primacy to the sovereignty of the people. The case against a written constitution is that it is unnecessary, undesirable and un-British.The UK's unwritten constitution is evolutionary and flexible in nature, enabling practical problems to be resolved as they arise and individual reforms made. A written constitution could create more litigation in the courts and politicise the judiciary. There is no real popular support or demand for a written constitution. Given these polarised views, the Committee is launching the consultation to get input from all quarters on the possibilities. |