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Do we need a written constitution? - Friday 2nd July 2010

At a debate on 22nd June 2010 hosted by SPADA, a professional services PR consultancy, four experts on the British Constitution battled for votes from the floor on the motion: “This House believes that the UK now needs a Written Constitution”. Though a highly interesting and extremely relevant issue in its own right, this particular debate was inspired primarily by Richard Gordon QC’s latest book, Repairing British Politics – a Blueprint for Constitutional Change. The book attempts to bring reform of the Constitution to attention in both its analysis of the arguments surrounding a possible written Constitution and through the medium of Gordon’s own attempt to draw up a draft constitution.

Richard Gordon led the arguments for the motion, with Professor Iain McLean – a Professor of Politics at Oxford University – supporting him as second speaker. On the other team were Sir Christopher Foster – Chairman of the Better Government Initiative – and Bill Cash – Conservative MP for Stone.

Both sides did agree that our current political system is flawed and in serious need of improvement, but the consensus ended there. Whilst Christopher Foster argued that improvement in standards within parliament in general and the government in particular would be sufficient to protect our constitutional principles, Richard Gordon proposed that a radical overhaul of the whole system is necessary, in the form of a written constitution. He spoke of the dangers of parliamentary sovereignty, the “glittering but inefficient monarchy” and the need to protect the “values of a modern society”, all of which he believes can be solved by codifying our constitution. Watch these arguments here. But, asked Christopher Foster, how can we just dismiss the uncodified constitution that has stood the country in such good stead in the past, and continues to do so due to its flexible nature? He further argued that the costs of implementing a codified constitution – both in time and money – would be prohibitive and wasteful. See his views here.

Iain McLean showed his concern over a political system running on “tacit understandings” which, he argued, should instead be “hauled into the light of day” by being codified. In his view, these, and other forms of constitutional legislation, should be harder to change than everyday legislation, and thus must be entrenched. Watch his full argument here. Bill Cash’s main concern was over Europe and the EU, and the complications that would occur in trying to write our own constitution, when the European Constitution already, he believes, takes precedence in the UK. Richard Gordon did not buy this, as he showed in his summing-up speech.

The debate also touched on a number of questions relating to how a written constitution might be formulated. How could so many views be reconciled? Would the public be involved? What would the power relationships within government be? And what content would be included?

The indicative vote at the outset of the debate came down narrowly in favour of preserving our existing uncodified constitution, whilst the closing vote swung in favour of the introduction of a written, codified constitution. But the result was far from a landslide. The debate neatly highlighted that the issues involved are complex and interrelated; no doubt the discussion will continue to rage, but it is clear the arguments for and against codification and entrenchment of our constitution are far from an open and shut case.

For more information on the pros and cons of a written or codified constitution, see here.

The debate may be viewed in full here.

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