Brown’s botched ‘Bill of Wrongs’
Thatcher and Brown: best of buddies.
Once, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher proposed a new bill of rights in the Tory manifesto. That promise was never made good upon. Similarly, when Gordon Brown became PM he used his first outing to talk about the need for a British Bill of Rights and constitutional reforms; putting power back in the hands of parliament and restoring trust in democracy. The Labour party website is littered with references to this. Now, nearly a year and a half later and following a catalogue of repeated promises and utter cock-ups, those promises and high words are dust. Below is the chronology of incompetence and spinelessness that led to the mess constitutional reform is in now. As Chris Huhne said yesterday, the government cannot take a good idea without turning it into rubbish: they have the reverse Midas Touch.
Brown’s failure raises several questions about the process: 1) were his words just a sop to appease us while he stamped his authoritarian foot, a) is Jack Straw really up to the job, and if not why did Brown pick him for it, c) is the Cabinet really committed to reform, or is it just Straw and possibly Brown, d) has Brown had nothing to say during to Straw over the last year about the direction his plans were going, etc., etc., etc.?
2nd July 2007
Gordon Brown gives speech on Constitutional Reform to the Commons – his first appearance as Prime Minister – saying:
“all Members of this House and all the people of this country have a shared interest in building trust in our democracy. And it is my hope that, by working together for change in a spirit that takes us beyond parties and beyond partisanship, we can agree a new British constitutional settlement that entrusts more power to Parliament and the British people.
Change with a new settlement is, in my view, essential to our country’s future…”
25th October 2007
Gordon Brown announces the beginning of a national consultation to draw up a Bill of Rights and establish a written constitution. In a speech on liberty at the University of Westminster he says:
“The debate about a Bill of Rights and Duties will be of fundamental importance to our liberties and to our constitutional settlement and opens a new chapter in the British story of liberty”.
2nd Dec 2007
In a speech to Labour’s National Policy Forum Gordon Brown announces:
“Preparing for the long term future means that our constitution must change too: bringing government closer to the people.
That’s why Jack Straw will publish our proposals for citizenship with a bill of rights and responsibilities.”
13th February 2008
Jack Straw gives a speech at the George Washington University, Washington, DC, in it he discusses modernising the Magna Carta and the shape a British Bill of Rights and written constitution might take.
14th May 2008
Plans for a British Bill or Rights and constitutional reforms appear in the draft Queen’s Speech.
10th August 2008
The Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights issued its report on a new bill of rights for the UK.
28th October 2008
Jack Straw presents a draft plan for proposed Bill of Rights to the Cabinet and provokes a revolt with one member saying: “The whole thing was panned. Nobody spoke up for it. It was total humiliation for Jack” and another viewing proposals as “pointless and provocative”.
6th November 2008
Lib Dem Peer and noted human rights lawyer Lord Lester resigns as unpaid advisor to Jack Straw over disagreements on Government proposals on the Bill of Rights. Lester describes the proposals as “unworkable” and adds that they fail to add anything valuable to the Human Rights Act.
3rd December 2008
Proposals for British Bill of Rights and constitutional reform quietly dropped from the Queen’s Speech.
Two things are clear from all of this:
1) Labour will tell us what we want to hear, but their promises mean nothing, and
2) the government couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery.