Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Thursday, 14 February 2008
A Written Constitution?
What does Jack Straw suppose that the Attlee Government would have been able to do if the United Kingdom had had at that time a written Constitution devised and enacted by any previous Government?
They really would have had to have been very extensive amendments indeed. And Straw presumably wants the British Constitution to have the same hallowed status as the American one. In which case, it will not only be extremely difficult to amend in principle, but bordering on impossible to amend in practice.
The American constitution I grant you is difficult to amend due to needing approval from congress, the states and the constitutional convention.
However for example in Ireland the constitution is quite easily amended once it has got past the Oireachtas. All it needs is the approval of the people.
Propose amendments to it.
ReplyDeleteThey really would have had to have been very extensive amendments indeed. And Straw presumably wants the British Constitution to have the same hallowed status as the American one. In which case, it will not only be extremely difficult to amend in principle, but bordering on impossible to amend in practice.
ReplyDeleteThe American constitution I grant you is difficult to amend due to needing approval from congress, the states and the constitutional convention.
ReplyDeleteHowever for example in Ireland the constitution is quite easily amended once it has got past the Oireachtas. All it needs is the approval of the people.
I don' think that that's quite what Straw has in mind.
ReplyDelete