...“Constitutional reform since 1997 has not gone far enough.” Discuss. I agree with the view that constitutional reform since 1997 has not gone far enough to a large extent. The House of Lords Act of 1999 has reformed the House of Lords, the Human Rights Act of 1998 was an important area of constitutional reform, as well as the Freedom of Information Act of 2000 and the devolution of powers. The electoral system used in the UK has also been subject to discussion over reform however all constitutional reform can be said to have not gone far enough. The House of Lords Act of 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords. This meant that the House of Lords could be seen as more legitimate as both unelected and not appointed peers would be seen as undemocratic and illegitimate. The removal of hereditary peers means that the House of Lords are more confident in their role in scrutinising and blocking legislation as they feel more legitimate. An example of the House of Lords exerting this role is the blocking of NHS reform which led to the government rethinking and amending plans, as well as the Hunting Act 2004. However reform of the House of Lords could be said to have not gone far enough, 92 hereditary peers still remain in the House of Lords, and the Liberal Democrats call for a wholly elected upper chamber, to make Parliament fully accountable. The House of Lords are also limited in the fact that they can only delay legislation for up to a year and therefore...
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...Politics: Luke flower 1. Democratic Legitimacy means that a government has been given by the voters a Democratic Mandate in an election to govern and therefore legally exercises power in the interests of all the people. At a British General Election, for example, a government is held accountable for its policies and the party, or parties, that wins the most seats may be said to have the democratic consent or legitimacy to govern on behalf of the public. 2. A Referendum can be held on Constitutional issues/changes if any changes alter the relationship between different parts of the state (e.g. devolution), or between citizens and the state such as the devolution referendum in 1979 where most Scots voted “yes” but 40% needed was not reached and it was unfavourable in Wales. Also, when there is a history of conflict and an agreement is to be made. Furthermore, If our representatives are unable to come to a decision about an issue or ff the govt feel that there will be much discontentment amongst the public if a decision is made without their consent, i.e. an issue that the people have strong opinions on, such as the EU referendum that is going to take place by the end of 2017. 3. The principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty in the UK means that referendums cannot be binding although it would be very difficult for governments to ignore the results of official referendums. Several important arguments have been raised in support of the increased use of referendums...
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...Unit 1 P1 “Outline the responsibilities of the different level of government in the UK.” House of Commons – It is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The HoC is part of the legislative process of British Politics. It consists of 650 elected members of Parliament, who represent a board spectrum of political parties. Each MP represents a constituency, which is a localised geographical area. There are two ways in which people get elected, it can happen either during a general election or by-election. A big range of political views and interests are represented in the House of Commons, which enables the ‘House’ to ensure that legislation and decisions are well debated by a variety of different people, which political views differ. HoC has a lot of different roles, MP’s are responsible of debating and passing all laws (legislation), controlling finances, protecting the individuals, examining European proposals, and scrutinises the work of the government, policies and administration. Those roles may have extremely wide impact on the country and public services. House of Lords – It is the upper house, the Second chamber, and is also commonly referred to as “the Lords”. The House of Lords can have a variable amount of members. Currently, there are about 790 members who are eligible to take part in the work of the HoL. Members come from many walks of life and bring experience and knowledge from a wide range of occupations. Majority of them are life peers, which...
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...After the Labour party’s strong victory in the 1997 general election, winning 179 seats, they have made moves and provisions towards constitutional reform. Indeed, the two prime ministers; Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have done much for reform over the years, as illustrated by devolution and the human rights act. Indeed, they made provision for reform in 4 key areas, modernisation, and greater protection of rights, democratisation and decentralisation. However, it can be argued that their reform has been limited, and much more can be done for constitutional reform. Firstly, it is clear that the modernisation aspects of the reform have been severely limited. Indeed, this can be illustrated by the reform of the House of Lords. Over the past 10 years, only part 1 of the reform process has taken place. This has included the removal of over 600 hereditary peers to only 92. However, no reform for a partially or fully elected second chamber has taken place. Until this happens it is argued that the Lords is not democratically legitimate as all policy making institutions must have legitimacy. By merely appointing the members of the Lords means that whilst they may have expertise, they are not socially accountable. These include the likes of Alan Sugar and Sebastian Coe. Also, the Wright report, which includes provisions towards electing members of select committee chairs by secret ballot, and to end the Winterton rule on public bill committees is still stuck within the legislative process...
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...Outline the responsibilities of the different levels of government in the UK. (P1) European Parliament The European parliament consists of 736 members from 27 different countries. 72 of these members are representing the UK’s interest. The European parliament debate and pass European law. They are based in three different places; Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. The European parliament cover several different things across Europe these include the environment, equal ops, transport, consumer rights and immigration. I think the main focus of the European parliament is to try to make the passing of legislation in the EU more democratic. Central Government The central government is below The Monarch and features the House of Commons and the House of lords which includes the Prime Minister. The central government looks after the whole country and has the power to make and pass laws. They have to defend their nation and will often have to sign agreements with other countries. The house of commons consists of 646 members of parliament who each represent a different part of the country. There are three main political parties; these are The Conservatives, The Liberal Democrats and The Labour Party. The House of Commons will deal with issues such as making laws, examining EU proposals and controlling finance throughout the nation. Most importantly anyone has the right to contact their local MP and get them to raise their issue for them within the House of Commons. The...
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...Has constitutional reform in the UK gone too far since 1997? Due to the uncodified nature of the UK constitution it is organic and the lack of higher law enables constitutional reforms to occur far quicker and with greater ease than seen in other countries, such as the USA. A constitutional reform is a political change in the constitution. There are varying bodies of opinion on the extent of constitutional reforms that are currently required within the UK. Constitutional changes have been mainly seen since 1997, under Blair and Brown, such as the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly in 1999, a constitutional reform some argue to be unnecessary while others argue should be extended and developed. A key issue that has divided constitutional opinions since 1997 is the idea of the unelected House of Lords, which some say undermine the legitimacy of democracy within the UK. The Salisbury convention already exists and ensures that the House of Lords does not obstruct proposals, which are previously contained in the elected government’s most recent manifesto, which is argues as an example of the removal of undemocratic sovereignty held previously by the Lords. However the fact that it is unwritten has been opposed to as the Lords is not fully controlled by the Government. To counteract the opposition other reforms have been introduce to reduce the powers of the House of Lords, such as the 1999 reform reducing hereditary peers to 92 from 600, and also the loss of...
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...The UK would benefit greatly from the wider use of referendumss? Discuss. A referendum is a form of direct democracy that involves a public vote on a single issue of public policy. It is a way of presenting a debated issue to public decision. The most recent referendum was in the UK; the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum which asked the question whether Scotland should break away from the UK or not. There are a variety of arguments both for and against the wider use of referendum in the UK. The use was greatly favoured by Tony Blair and his new Labour government in 1997 because they took the view that referendum was a democratic device that allows people the opportunity to give a direct voice in decision making. Therefore, any decision made via referendum acquires legitimacy because it has popular approval. Moreover, referendums can encourage political participation which will help the declining participation of the UK in the way that as referendums are where people can get directly involve in the decision making, they will see this as opportuniy to contribute to the political world as themselves, thereby encouraging them to turn out in election to vote and increase participation like in the 2014 Scottish referendum where the participation brough about a turnout of 84.59% compared to the 2010 general election turnout of 65.1%. Shown clearly in the example is the clear difference between participation of direct democracy and representative democracy which would greatly...
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...abolished. This makes the UK less undemocratic rather then more democratic. This is due to the fact that the House of Lords as a whole is an unelected chamber and therefore undemocratic, however by removing the voting rights of some hereditary peers it makes it less undemocratic as they are there simply by birth and not even appointed. So this reform does make the UK slightly more democratic however some peers remain and the whole chamber is still unelected and so is still very undemocratic. The referendum reform which is the introduction that any proposal to transfer power within the UK should be approved by a referendum. This makes the UK more democratic as it allows the country to become directly involved in the big decisions of devolution as it means large changes in there area/country and as a form of direct democracy makes the decision legitimate and fair. However it also can lead to voter fatigue and also only the government can decide when to put forward a referendum and so the power is not totally with the people. Also depending on wording of the question this can have an effect on the results and could be seen to be...
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...A constitution is a set of principles, which may be codified or uncodified, that establishes the distribution of power within, that establishes the distribution of power within, a political institution. They limit government jurisdiction the rights of citizens and the method of amending the constitution itself. The UK Constitution is uncodified which means the UK constitution is not organised into singular document, but written in alternative ways for example a Convention. I will talk about the following factors, Executive Power, Modernisation and Flexibility which is the way ill assess the UK’s Constitution Executive Power is a strength of the UK Constitution, due to the UK Constitution being unwritten and uncodified the government can be more powerful and decisive easier as they do have to follow a strict set of rules. For example the 1997 Government rearranged the House of Lords with reforms this was quickly done and this was due to the UK not having a constitution. However, the liberals state that not having a constitution and having a strong government threatens the individual rights, the position of minorities and the influence of public opinion. For example Tony Blair decided in 2005 to declare war on Iraq without consulting the people this led to backlash from the public and protests. However, the General Elections is to choose a representative, one of the perks of having a representative is they can use their specialist knowledge to make decisions on the public’s behalf...
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...the Human rights act, Devolution and some reform of the House of Lords among other less important changes. Unfortunately Labour did not complete those reforms and a great deal was left undone. The question since then is how much has the constitution been reformed and how positive effect these reforms have had. There is no doubt that the HRA has transformed Britain. It created a means by which government and other bodies could be prevented from abusing our rights. The courts were given powers to enforce rights. This has meant that we now have more privacy and have the right to be treated equally under the law. However, the HRA was not made biding on Parliament and so governments can still abuse rights. This has been seen with anti-terrorism acts which give the police great powers including the ability to arrest suspects without trial. The HRA also does not protect us against the growth of surveillance and stop search powers or the prevention of some demonstrations. Similarly, the FOI act has been partly effective as it enabled us to know about the MP’s expense scandal and other aspects of government. However government can still conceal sensitive information thus perhaps the act should have been stronger. The introduction of Devolution as well supported in Scotland and Wales has made a huge difference in those countries as well as in Northern Ireland, the people of those countries support it and have demanded more. Thus the main issue is that devolution did not go far enough...
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...To What Extent Have Constitutional Reforms Since 1997 Reduced the Powers of the UK Government? (40 Marks) The UK government has a lot of power and is able to make and abolish laws. Human Rights Act 1998, Freedom of Information Act 2000 and devolution are examples of constitutional reforms that have in some ways decreased the power of the UK government. Devolution is where the supreme power (in this case Westminster) distributes some power to other regions. For example; the UK government decided to give devolved power to Scotland to form the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland to form The Northern Ireland Assembly and to Wales to form the Welsh Assembly. Scotland has statistically more devolved power than Wales or Northern Ireland as Scotland is able to decide the amount of tax that it demands off its citizens. Scotland is able to raise or lower the tax rate in Scotland by 3% which decreases UK government power over Scotland. On the contrary, the UK government does not have its power reduced. The UK government has the power to take away the devolved power that it has given to these regions. This has been previously conducted in the past with Northern Ireland in 1972 when Northern Ireland was stripped of its devolved power due to constant violence and lack of control that the Northern Ireland Assembly had over its people. Within the early years of Northern Irelands devotional power there was riots and verbal fights between politicians from unionist parties and nationalist/republican...
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...Adam Golembiewski Public Services Level 3 UNIT 1 - GOVERNMENT, POLICIES AND THE PUBLIC SERVICES Task 2 – M1 explain in detail the responsibilities of the different levels of government in the UK Unit 1 M2 – explain in detail the responsibilities of the different levels of government in the UK. The different levels of government are: Local, Regional and National government. Local Government Local Government is also known as ‘councils’ or ‘local authorities,’ there are 4 types of Local government all covering different sized areas. These types of council are: * County councils (council for counties e.g. Nottinghamshire) * Parish council (e.g boroughs like Woodsetts) * Metropolitan council (e.g. London) * Unitary Authorities (e.g. towns, Nottingham) The most important role of a council is the services they provide for citizens. County and Metropolitan councils are responsible for services across the whole of a county or city, like education, transport services, planning, fire and public safety, social care, libraries, waste management and trading standards for their area. Parish (Borough) councils cover a smaller area, often a town or rural area, and are usually responsible for services such as rubbish collection and recycling, council tax collection, leisure services and housing. Unitary authorities are councils that provide one tier of local government and provide all services. This is confusing as they can also be called city...
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...life peers as an alternative. Many Lords and Ladies are offered a place in the HOL either for service, such as previous MP’s, or due to their particular knowledge in a field, such as Alan Sugar as he has a vast amount of knowledge in business. However this was the last reform made, no more hereditary peers have been abolished, the question on whether or not to make the upper house elected is still on-going and previous conservative MP’s still hold more seats than any other party thus making the HOL unrepresentative and undemocratic. Therefore many argue this constitutional change has not gone far enough, although considering that the HOL has been reformed three times in the last century, it doesn’t seem to be quite so unforgivable. Devolution is perhaps the reformation most in favour of the constitution being adequately reformed. In 1997 and 1998 Westminster devolved a significant amount of its power to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales....
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...To what extent is parliament still sovereign? For many years it has been argued that parliamentary sovereignty has, and still is, being eroded. As said by AV Dicey, the word ‘sovereignty’ is used to describe the idea of “the power of law making unrestricted by any legal limit”. Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution, stating that Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK, able to create and remove any law. This power over-rules courts and all other jurisdiction. It also cannot be entrenched; this is where all laws passed by the party in government can be changed by future parliaments. In recent years sovereignty of parliament has been a In 1972 the UK joined the treaty of accession, this was a statute law passed by parliament. It stated that the UK was now a part of the EU and therefore must abide by the laws and regulations that would be imposed; over 2,900 regulations and 410 directives were added, 43 volumes of the EU legislation. Due to having joined over 30 years after the initial EU was created, the UK has been made to accept laws that had been made without its input. Whereas now, having joined the EU, we are involved in in their creation - this is a key argument for why we should remain a member. Joining the EU has been agued as being a pinnacle point at which the UK lost its sovereignty, as this was the first time in the history of parliament where absolute power was no longer held. Research done by the TPA (Taxpayers Alliance)...
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...Constitutional reform since 1997 has not gone far enough. Discuss. I believe that constitutional reform since 1997, ultimately has not gone far enough in the UK. Such reforms in the UK, including the House of Lords Act 1999 took reform in Westminster to quite a large extent, but this has be limited by a few factors. In addition, the Human Right Act 1998 was another significant reform under the Blair government allowing citizens clearer light on their rights and freedoms, however this Act of Parliament is not entrenched within the UK’s constitution. The electoral system has also been subject to interpretation under constitutional reform such as PR systems used for Scottish Parliament and devolved assemblies. The House of Lords Act 1999 put through under the Blair government removed all but 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords. This meant that Parliament’s lower chamber could be seen as a more legitimate body as unelected and unappointed peers were seen as undemocratic and illegitimate to the UK political system. This also meant that there would be a more confident role of scrutiny in the House of Lords as appointed peers would be deemed fairer on legislation in the Lords chamber. An example of the House of Lords exerting this new role is the blocking of the NHS reform which led to the government having to amend their plans, as well as the Hunting Act 2004. Conversely, this reform to the House of Lords could be argued to have not gone far enough as 92 hereditary peers...
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