> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Iain Dale comes out for a constitution
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/iain-dale-comes-out-for-a-constitution/
- Published: 2008-03-14T00:03:15.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:39:48.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:41

**Anthony Barnett (London,** [**OK**](http://ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/?ref=opendemocracy.net)**):** I'm watching [BBC 24](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question%5Ftime/6994949.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net) with [Iain Dale](http://iaindale.blogspot.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net) and Alex Hilton sweeping up the email detritus of Question Time. Discussing the Goldsmith debacle over children swearing an oath of fealty to the monarch, Iain picked up on the member of the Question Time public who pointed out that in the US people swear loyalty to the constitution not the president and showed the kind of overview that the panelists ought to have and in this case didn't. George Osborne was useless. But not as conceptually challenged as Alex Hilton of Labour Home, who in a classic Labour way seemed not to understand what Iain was saying: that we don't have a written constitution and should. I've long thought that the Tories were more likely to propose a new constitution than Labour (if only for good conservative reasons). Alas, David Davis didn't win the leadership.