Brown's proposals have large implications for foreign policy

Andrew Blick (London, Democratic Audit): My first reaction to Gordon Brown's statement - with which I hope many will agree - is that it is of historic significance. On foreign policy, which I will be posting on shortly in more detail at MyForeignPolicyToo, I have the following comments: I would like the commitment to consult Parliament on war and peace to be statutory (since the discretion to respond to emergencies can be built into a law just as well as a convention). The proposal for a statutory right for Parliament to ratify treaties is excellent and in some ways more important than the war powers, since treaties can draw us into wars, or at least provide the excuse for them (think 1914), but cover many, many other policy areas as well. Trade treaties can have even greater consequences for human suffering or good than military conflicts. But we will need reform of the parliamentary committee system if MPs and Peers are to dispose of their new responsibilities for oversight of treaties (and war) properly. It would be good to know that Parliament is going to get to look at appointments to bodies such as the Export Credit Guarantees Department or UK Trade International. And I would like the Commons Strategic Export Controls Committee - which is responsible for checking we are not exporting implements of oppression abroad - to get advanced notice of the issue of export licences. But generally this is great stuff, comprising many of the changes we have been recommending, and it has exceeded my expectations.