Brown's Britishness must address both England and the EU, David Marquand

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:19:58 +0000

Six months is an eternity in politics. It is hard now to recapture the sense of excitement among constitutional reformers when, astonishingly soon after its formation, the new Brown Government published its Green Paper The Governance of Britain, and spoke of a national consultation on British values and a possible British bill of rights. Since then, the élan that marked Brown's early weeks in Number Ten has dribbled away. Northern Rock, the lost computer disks, Hain's resignation and the prospect of an end to the long boom of the late-1990s and early 2000s have cast a pall over the Government and pushed constitutional issues far down the political agenda. Yet the need for reform is as urgent as it ever was; and the green paper has created a better - or at least less bad - opportunity than we have seen for years.

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Brown's Britishness must address both England and the EU, David Marquand