component 2: UK Government

Question 1

what is the Magna Carta?

Answer 1

The Magna Carta was established in 1215 and it was an agreement between King John and the barons, who had rebelled against the abuse of royal power. The Magna Carta stated the principles that no one should be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law, e.g. a court hearing.

Question 2

what is the Bill of Rights?

Answer 2

The Bill of Rights was established in 1689 and was passed by parliament in reaction to the rule of King James II. The Bill included provisions for: regular parliaments, free elections, freedom of speech without parliament.

Question 3

what is the Act of Settlement?

Answer 3

the Act was established in 1701 because there was a motivated desire to to exclude James II and his heirs from the throne. The Act established the right of parliament to determine the line of succession to the throne.

Question 4

what are the Acts of Union?

Answer 4

The Acts of Union were established in 1707, when the United Kingdom and Scotland, which had shared monarch since 1603 but had retained two separate parliaments. Both parliaments were now placed under on parliament based in Westminster.
This was the basis of the UK until Tony Blair’s new Labour government passed legislation to set up a Scottish parliament once again in 1997, known as devolution.

Question 5

what are the Parliament Acts?

Answer 5

The Parliament Acts were established in 1911-1949 and reduced the interference of the House of Lords with the agenda in the House of Commons.
The 1911- affirmed that the lords could not delay money bills. e.g. when the lords rejected the radical tax raising known as the ‘people’s budget’ by David Lloyd George.

1949- act reduced by delaying this to one year.

Question 6

what is the European Communities Act?

Answer 6

The act was established in 1972 by Edward Heath’s conservative government, the act took the UK into the EU. It established the principle that EU law would take precedence over UK law where a conflict occurred.

Question 7

What are the natures of the UK constitution? explain and give examples.

Answer 7

It is uncodified: this means that there is no single legal document in which the key principles are gathered together. instead it is derived from a number of sources, some written down, some unwritten, e.g. a monument.

It is unentrenched: This means that it can be altered relatively easily, by a simple majority vote in parliament. There is no special procedure for amending the UK constitution. In contrast in a codified constitution it is harder to amend the Constitution as the constitution is protected by a higher court and requiring special procedure to amend it, this is known as being entrenched. E.G. to amend the US constitution there needs to be support from tow thirds of the congress and three quarters of the state to become laws.

It is Unitary: this means that sovereignty has been located in the Centre with the component parts of the country- England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and essentially run from London.
This has been modified since devolution was established in the late 1990s. You could now use the term ‘union state’ where the distribution of power between the central and regional governments of the UK can still be altered by act of parliament.

Question 8

what are the three main ways in which parliament cans said to be sovereign?

Answer 8

1. No parliament can bind its successor. Parliament has the right to amend or repeal any acts passed by previous parliaments. E.G. in 2003 repealed section 28 of the 1988 local government act, which had made it illegal for local authorities and schools intentionally to promote homosexuality.
2. Parliament can make a law on any subject. E.G. the major social changes of the mid 1960s legalizing’s abortion, and homosexuality, and also abolishing the death penalty.
3. legalization passed by parliament cannot be struck down by a higher body, such as a constitutional court. The UK’s supreme court can interpret but not overturn an act of parliament.

Question 9

what is parliamentary sovereignty?

Answer 9

the principle that parliament can make, amend or unmake any law, and cannot bind its successors or be bound to it by its predecessors.

Question 10

What is The Rule Of Law?

Answer 10

it is the principle that all people and bodies including government, must follow the law and can be held to account if they do not.
under the rule of law:
1. everyone is entitled to a free trial and no one should be imprisoned without due legal process.
2. all citizens must obey the law and are equal under it.
3. public officials are not above the law and they can be held to account by courts.
4. the judiciary must be independent of political interference.

Question 11

what was A.V Dicey’s twin pillar theory?

Answer 11

He was a Victorian constitutional theorist who identified the two key principles of the UK constitution: parliamentary sovereignty and The rule of Law. These two key principles where referred to as the twin pillar theory.

Question 12

what are the main sources of the constitution?

Answer 12

1. statute Law
2. Common Law
3. Conventions
4. Autorotative works
5. treaties

Question 13

what is Common Law? give an example

Answer 13

laws made by judges where the law does not cover the issue or is unclear.
E.G. the presumption that a person accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty. unlawful imprisonment was converted into statute law in 1679.

Question 14

what is statute law?

Answer 14

it is the law that is passed by parliament. Not all laws are constitutional, only those that affect the nature of the political system and citizen’s rights. it is the most important source of the constitution as it is underpinned by the concept of parliamentary sovereignty.
E.G. the 1998 Scotland Act, Government of Wales Act, and the Northern Ireland Act created devolved legislative bodies, which were given some powers previously held by Westminster.

Question 15

what are conventions?

Answer 15

customs and practices that do not have legal force, but which have been broadly accepted over time. they can be challenged and changed by an act of parliament.
E.G. the principle established sine the 2003 Iraq war and subsequent parliamentary votes, that except in an emergency, the government will not order military action without prior approval.

Question 16

what are Authoritative works?

Answer 16

textbooks that explain the working of the political system. a useful guide but lacking legal standing.
E.G. Erskine May’s parliamentary practice first published in 1844 and is regularly updated, explains the rules of parliamentary life.

Question 17

what are treaties?

Answer 17

agreements with other EU member states, which UK governments have signed since joining what is now the EU in 1973.
now however, we have left the EU due to the Brexit referendum in 2016.
the most important treaty is Maastricht 1992, which transformed the European Community into the EU.

Question 18

pressure for reforms in the 1990s: demands for modernisation?

Answer 18

Tony Blair’s government was sympathetic to the idea of constitutional reform, as it wanted to modernise British institutions.
New Labour was open to the idea of of introducing pressure groups such as charter 88, who wanted more democracy and stronger guarantees of citizens rights.
Blair also wanted to reform the FPTP electoral system.

Question 19

the experience of the conservatives rule 1978-1997.

Answer 19

the conservatives had refused to undertake constitutional reform. This built up the pressure for change especially in Scotland where they felt as though they were being ignored.
The Scottish government rejected the the unpopular poll tax in 1989.

Question 20

changes under Labour: what was the House of Lords reform?

Answer 20

when the Labour government took office in 1997, the House of Lords was dominated by hereditary peers who received their lord titles by inheriting it. The Labour government ended this right to all but 92 peers, which increased Labour’s support in the House of Lords, as most of the hereditary peers were conservative supporters.
the removal of most of these peers also modernised the House of Lords.
The Majority of its members are now life peers, who are supposed to be appointed on the grounds of merit, reflecting a wide variety of fields of activity, including politics business, trade union movement, arts and the military.
No political party now dominated the Lords.
From 2000, a House of Lords Appointments Commission nominated a proportion of peers who were not linked with a party. However, the PM still makes nominations on political grounds and there was never an agreement that was reached to decide whether the Lords would be partially or wholly elected and so it continues to lack democratic legitimacy.

Question 21

What was electoral reform?

Answer 21

various forms of PR were introduced for elections to the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, Northern Ireland Assembly and European parliament.
Government commissioned a report into the system for Westminster (under Roy Jenkins, Lib Dem peer) to change the system to PR, but no action was taken.
Labour had won a large victory under FPTP, so had no interest in changing it.

Question 22

what was Devolution?

Answer 22

devolved bodies were created for Scotland, Wales, Nothern Ireland following referendums in 1997-1998. Labour’s devolution reforms were a pragmatic package, designed to reduce support for SNP who are pro Scottish independence, and to also bring together conflicting unionist and nationalist factions in NI. Demand for devolution in Wales was weaker and the Welsh Assembly did not gain the same amount of powers that the Scottish parliament did.
The government had no answer to the ‘west Lothian question’- the anomaly that Scottish MPs at Westminster were able to vote on purely English matters, yet English MPs had no influence over issues devolved to the Scottish parliament .
Another problem was the persistence of the Barnett Formula, devised by Labour minister Joel Barnett in 1978. It determines relative levels of public spending for the component parts of the UK on the basis of population.
It means that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive more spending per head of the population than England.
There was an attempt to set up regional assemblies in England was abandoned after the only area in which a referendum was held to test public opinion, the North East, rejected the idea in 2004.

Question 23

what was the Human Rights Act?

Answer 23

This act incorporated the the European Convention on Human Rights into UK statute Law, including rights like being able to have the right to a fair trial, freedom from slavery, freedom from degrading treatment, and respect for privacy and family life.
All legislation that is passed in the future has to be compatible with the ECHR.
Judges could not strike down laws that were incompatible with it but could highlight it and ask for amendment in parliament.
There are limitations of the Act which was shown by the governments decision to declare an exemption from Article 5, which gave individuals the right to individual liberty and security, in cases of suspected terrorism. This highlighted the unentrenched nature of the act.

Question 24

what was the Creation of the Supreme Court?

Answer 24

the 2005 Constitutional Reform Act led to the establishment, 4 years later, of the Supreme Court as the highest court of appeal in the UK for civil cases, and (except for Scotland) criminal cases.
This was previously preformed by the Law Lords sitting in the House of Lords. This development is known as separation of powers- the idea that the different branches of government ( in this case law-making and judicial) should be independent of each other.

Question 25

what is the definition of devolution?

Answer 25

The dispersal of power, but not sovereignty, within a political system.

Question 26

House of Lords reform and House of Commons foundry reform:

Answer 26

There were plans for a mainly elected House of Lords, but it was dropped after a rebellion by 91 backbench conservative MPs.
The lib dems wanted a democratically elected upper house, retaliated by blocking the legislation to have 600 MPs rather than 650. This would effectively produce a smaller number of constituencies, so votes would be more equal across the country. The Lib Dems did not want this change as it would have favored the conservatives.
After the Coalition the conservatives declared the reform would be introduced by the 2020 general election. This was before Theresa called am early election in 2017.

Question 27

rights:

Answer 27

The Conservatives wanted to replace the Human rights Act with a British Bill of Rights.
The Lib Dems wanted to keep the Act.
This failed and in the Conservative manifesto in 2015 they pledged to re-visit the issue.

Question 28

reform of the House of Commons:

Answer 28

The coalition implemented reforms recommended by a committee chaired by Labour MP Tony Wright.
chairs of the House of Commons select committees, which scrutinise the activities of government departments, were to be chosen by MPs, rather than have their selection influenced by the party leaders.
A backbench business committee was created, which chooses topics for debate.
The first debate that was triggered by people seeking justice for the 96 Liverpool football supporters who died in 1989 in the Hillsborough disaster.

Question 29

devolution:

Answer 29

Wales: a referendum was held in Wales in March 2011 on proposals to grant further powers to the Welsh Assembly. This resulted in the assembly receiving the power to make law in 20 policy areas, without needing to consult Westminster.

Scotland: The Scottish parliament received more powers under the Scotland Act in 2012. These included borrowing powers, the right to set its own rate of income tax and control over landfill tax and stamp duty.
A referendum also took place in 2014 to give Scotland independence, which resulted in 55% of the voters deciding to remain in the UK.
David Cameron also pledged to give Scotland more powers.

England: The issue of ‘English votes for English laws’ came into question under the conservative government in 2015. It questioned that if a measure that only concerns England or England and Wales comes before the House of Commons it could be passed by the approval of a grand committee. This occurred in in January 2016, to pass a housing bill without the involvement of Scottish MPs.

Question 30

The fixed term parliament Act 2011:

Answer 30

This ended the PMs power to chose the date of the general election by establishing that a new parliament must be elected on a fixed date, at five year intervals.
This suited both partners in the coalition by giving the government a guaranteed period in which to implement their programme, free from speculation about the date of the next election.
However, Theresa May proved that there were ways for the PM to get around the Act as she called a general election in 2017 only two years after the previous ones.

Question 31

what would you say were the most successful reforms under the coalition?

Answer 31

devolution, the fixed term parliament act, reform of the house of commons, the recall of MPs act.

Question 32

should the UK constitution be codified and entrenched including a bill of rights?
for

Answer 32

1. codification would educate the public about constitutional issues and promotes greater respect for political institutions.
2. entrenchment would not make it possible to amend the constitution, but in doing so it would entail an orderly and careful process. This would prevent the government make ill considered changes.
3. an entrenched bill of rights would provide stronger protection of individual liberties than the current Human rights act, as for example the the introduction of control orders in 2005 demonstrated. With an uncodified constitution there is a tendency for the government to push the boundaries of what is politically possible increasing their own power.
4. codification would mean greater clarity about the rights of citizens and the powers of the government for example clearing up the uncertainty arising from conventions governing the power of the PM, the circumstances in which ministers should resign and what happens if there is a hung parliament with no clear election winner.
5. A constitutional court like the one in the USA and Germany that are staffed by by senior judges with expert knowledge would be able to judge the constitutionality of actions by parliament and the executive, judging their behavior by a clear set of rule. this would increase the legitimacy of the political process.

Question 33

against:

Answer 33

1. There is no public demand for change of this kind. it would be extremely difficult to find consensus on what to include in a codified constitution and it would take years of debate and consultation.
2. An uncodified constitution allows for greater flexibility. The UK constitution is an organic entity that is able to adapt to political and social change e.g. COVID 19.
   reforms since 1997 can be seen as evidence of the ability of the UK constitution to absorb change.
3. If there is a strong executive that is answerable to parliament is able to make decisions rapidly in changing situations foe example in countering the threat of terrorism. The government would be constrained if it was codified.
4. Much of the historic constitution is written, with acts of authority providing clear guidance. Few codified constitutions are self explanatory and not very easy to interpret.
5. It would give too much power to the hands of the unelected like judges who may be out of touch with public opinion. A codified constitution would be a direct challenge to parliamentary sovereignty, on which the UK system of government has been founded, because it would bind future parliaments.