Is the Establishment that Stubborn?
Last
night the Unelected House of Lords, the second largest unelected legislative
chamber in the world – second only to China’s! Stopped in its tracks the unrepresentative Government of the UK.
I will leave on one side the
controversial, shameful and punitive cuts to the Tax Credit system that will
wreak havoc to the lives of an estimated 3 million people. Rather I wish to concentrate
on what now for our so called ‘Democracy’.
After the defeat last night
the Prime Minister and Chancellor railed against the Lords, that ‘constitutional conventions’ have been
broken and that what happened has only occurred some half a dozen times since
the 1700’s!. So what? Times change, politics move on and most certainly the
governance of the UK has done so over the last 30 years.
There really is little point
in bleating about ‘conventions’ and that the Constitution has been brought to a
‘point of crises. As with the so many
other aspects of our domestic politics and governance this was another chaotic situation
that was just waiting to happen.
In six posts on this blog I
have sought to highlight all this over 4 months:
June 27 Reflections on a Chaotic and
Fragmented Union
Aug. 4 Reforming Britain’s Archaic System
Aug 20 Governance and the Voting System
Aug 17 English Votes for English Laws
Aug 29 We live in troubled and turbulent times
Sep 15 The Year the Political/Governing
Establishments finally cracked
I cannot recall in my adult life a time like the present where governance
arrangements at Westminster and the nations of the United Kingdom are being confronted
with such a wide range of seemingly insurmountable problems. This applies to
domestic and international politics, finance and economics, collapse of social
cohesion, escalating humanitarian and refugee crisis, the global environment or
matters of peace and security. There is an over-riding feeling that the
political institutions whether at home, Europe or on the world stage are
unwilling or unable to secure any semblance of control.
By now I frequently doubt the common will or indeed the competence of
existing domestic institutions to resolve matters.
I have no doubt that the political parties and their leaders will
descend into a plethora of argument and counter argument relating
to the tax credit fiasco and whether the House of Lords acted
unconstitutionally. Everyone will defend their viewpoint and there is high
danger that the central issues will not be addressed.
I will not make this a
lengthy post.
The conclusion is clear, as
is the way ahead.
Our Constitution is
unwritten – hence we descend to chaos from time to time. Almost every other
domestic state in the world possesses a basic statute delineating the form’s
and powers of the state’s institutions. It will also need to incorporate the reality
of Britain’s situation in the modern world and end the old shibboleth of the ‘sovereignty
of Parliament’.
Britain is not a representative
Democracy. It is in need of modernising and reforming.
Our voting system is busted.
The First Past the Post System that worked well when Labour and the Tories
dominated from the 1930’s has not worked properly and democratically since the
1980’s. The system cannot cope with a political landscape which is one of multi-parties
and consequently millions of people are not represented in Parliament. The concept of a ‘mandate to govern’ in the
democratic sense no longer applies.
Not only is the House of
Commons unrepresentative of the way people voted we have in the 21st Century! an Un-elected House
of Lords.
The governance of the UK
Union is nothing short of chaotic and as a consequence the Union itself is fragmented
and is in danger of falling apart.
In the middle of this
unplanned and fragmented Union lies the problem of England and how to devolve
power within it. It is a highly centralised nation and what has happened over
two decades has been the introduction of a series of un-coordinated initiatives
that only serve to add to the fragmentation.
There is only one solution.
The Prime Minister need for
once to behave like a Statesman and establish a Constitutional Convention that
will report on – a written Constitution for the UK, reform to the voting system, a
coherent system for the Governance of the UK and the establishment of an
elected Second Chamber.
Britain’s constitutional
immobilisation has numerous sources, not least the country’s political culture
and the continuity of its institutions. Of equal significance, however, has
been the narrow self-interest of the political parties, especially Labour and the
Conservatives. It is time for that to change now.
Appeals to the British way
of doing things which is a tradition of ‘evolutionary change’ will not work for
much longer.
What is needed is
for the political leaders to engage and display the goodwill and vision necessary
to create a modern, democratic United Kingdom fit for purpose to meet the
demands of the 21st Century.