The Constitution Society: Working to promote informed debate about constitutional reform

[First Published on Monday 18th April 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

First Past the Post “isn’t delivering clear representation of people in the country”, argues Chris Nicholson, Chief Executive of Centre Forum, the liberal think tank. “We need reform to give voters more choice”.

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[First Published on Tuesday 12th April 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Lord Kinnock recently spoke to The Constitution Society about his support for AV and his reaction to the negativism of the no campaign in the lead up to the referendum on May 5th.  Here we report his thoughts.

The reality of multiparty politics, is, Neil Kinnock asserts, “evident” now and for future generations. The use of First Past the Post in this type of political system is “fundamentally flawed”.

The current situation of political parties being given 100% of the power for less than 40% of the vote is not “sustainable, proportionate or acceptable”.

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[First Published on Tuesday 5th April 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Ahead of May’s referendum on the Alternative Vote, Labour peer Baroness Hayter argued this week that First Past the Post is the right electoral system for the UK.  Any change would have unknown consequences and a change to AV would obscure the link between people’s votes and the parties in power.

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[First Published on Wednesday 6th April 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

“Strongly in favour of electoral reform” but against the loss of the single-member constituency under PR, Peter Hain is certain of the merits of AV; “It retains the single member but makes sure that member has majority local support.”

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[First Published on Tuesday 1st March 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Whether the natural consequence of an evolving concept of democracy or a kneejerk reaction to the sense of disenfranchisement engendered by the expenses scandal, the UK is reeling with referendum fever.

The Welsh face the polls this week, asked whether the National Assembly should take on broader legislative independence.

A UK-wide poll on the Alternative Vote will take place on May 5th.

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[First Published on Monday 17th January 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

An unspoken minor casualty of global warming has been the devaluation of the adjective ‘glacial’: as ice caps and glaciers melt more quickly, ‘glacial’ no longer adequately describes a process as numbingly slow as the reform of the House of Lords.

Radical changes in the constitution of the UK’s ‘upper’ House of Parliament have been openly desired since Gladstone’s era; but the heat of the furious debates has not thrown much light on either the composition or the powers of a reformed Lords.

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[First Published on Tuesday 25th January 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

The Cabinet Manual proved to be a fertile topic for debate at this month’s meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Constitution. 

Lord Norton chaired a fascinating discussion on the Manual’s drafting, content and legal implications with contributions from Professor Margaret Wilson, former speaker of the New Zealand Parliament, Professor Robert Hazell, director of the Constitution Unit at UCL and Professor Richard Gordon QC, an eminent voice in constitutional law.

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[First Published on Friday 17th December 2010]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Was the Black Knight a member of the House of Lords?

You must remember him: the implacable defender of a plank over a stream in Monty Python’s 1975 Holy Grail film, refusing to admit defeat even after all his limbs are chopped off and his opponent skirts around him and moves on. Well, it’s nearly 100 years since the powers of the Lords were curtailed, with Prime Minister Asquith’s promise of full reform to follow, and Britain’s ‘upper’ parliamentary chamber is still there: a mish-mash of hereditary and appointed characters.

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[First Published on Friday 10th December 2010]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Amid sit-ins in London, Cambridge, Leeds, Plymouth and Edinburgh, kettling in Whithall and threatened rebellion in Westminster, MPs voted yesterday to raise the cap on tuition fees to £9,000 a year from the current £3,290 for students starting university in September 2012.

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[First Published on Thursday 25th November 2010]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Constitutional expert Dr Meg Russell has warned that the Coalition pledge to make the political makeup of the House of Lords  reflect that of the lower House has put Parliament on an “unsustainable course” which will do “serious damage” if it goes unchecked.

The Constitution Unit’s deputy director voiced her concerns following the recent announcement of the latest round of peer appointments by the Coalition.  The 50 new names take the Prime Minister’s peerage list to the “unprecedented” level of 111 in the six months since his election and means that the number of Members in the Second Chamber now exceeds the level prior to the removal of hereditary peers in 1999.