Robert Hazell (London, Constitution Unit): Today Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister. In his leadership campaign he announced constitutional reform would be one of his main priorities. So the Constitution Unit has produced a detailed briefing setting out the main choices facing the new government. It is called Towards a New Constitutional Settlement: An Agenda for Gordon Brown’s First Hundred Days and Beyond (opens pdf). In it, we have set out a detailed action plan for the first 100 days, for the next two years, and for the next Parliament.
There are two ways in which we can quickly tell whether Gordon Brown is serious about constitutional reform. First, in the Cabinet appointments he makes this week. Will he put a committed and experienced Minister in charge of the constitutional reform programme, and reform minded people to be Leader of the House and Chief Whip? If he doesn’t, his reforms risk being frustrated or still born. Second, in the machinery of government changes he makes. Will he merge the Scotland and Wales Offices, and revive the Cabinet Committee on Devolution, and the Joint Ministerial Committee to negotiate with the new governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? If he doesn’t, devolution is going to cause him endless grief, because Whitehall won't have the capacity to think about devolution in the round.
So much for the machinery and the framework. What about the policies? The big items are Lords reform and a British bill of rights. The difficulty for Brown is that he cannot deliver either in this parliament. A bill to introduce an elected element into the Lords just wouldn't get through the Commons, let alone the Lords. And a British bill of rights needs to be based upon widespread, and bottom up consultation. So what can the government do in the meantime, to maintain momentum and keep these policies alive and moving forward? This is where a constitutional convention or Citizens’ Assembly may come in. The most important chapter in the briefing is the one on all the different mechanisms for constitutional reform, and the pros and cons of each. Properly used, they could provide the basis for a renewal and relaunch of the constitutional reform programme.
