“Parliament is sovereign.” My A-Level Government & Politics lecturer stated and she emphasized sovereign. The idea that a legislature elected has the power to overrule monarchs, courts or even international bodies stirs the cockles of possibly the most patriotic of Americans.
The idea however has very British roots. The ideals of Parliament’s armies and of its more radical elements such as the levelers and the ranters led to radical liberalism spreading to its colonies across the world a plantation of ideas rather than people. Within barely a century this radicalism had spawned a new nation and laid the foundations for three more only another fifty years after.
But, back to my lecture and my lecturer. She was always full of energy and probably was one of the most patient and bi-partisan person I have ever met. You could have put Stalin, Hitler and Nero in that room with her and she would have been happy to lecture and moderate any discussion.
Her political pedigree was impeccable having been at the Greenham Common protests in the 1980s and then being political secretary to Labour MP and former Home Secretary David Blunkett who, being blind, had to rely on a nice guide dog who had a habit of going to the toilet in his office to which she happily cleaned up knowing that at that time huge things were happening in British politics.
So when she spoke I tended to listen and she was talking about the primacy of Parliament above everything else. Yes monarchs can veto, European Commissions can dictate via EU regulation and the Courts can change, repeal or even create law but Parliament can undo that all with some loud grumbling and the simple matter of there being more ayes than no’s.
Or so that is how the system is meant to work when in reality it never really has. Not since the 18th century anyway. Party politics in one way or another has flourished in Britain since the restoration when the terms Whig and Tory emerged and along with them the whips and the enforcers to keep those members in line. And then there was the issue of lack of universal suffrage (i.e. only a limited number of people could vote), lack of secret voting, rotten boroughs (constituencies with little or no voters) and so on.
Today its power is besieged by a triple threat of devolution to the various parts of the United Kingdom, European legislation and agreements and power hungry government.
It is quite ironic that it is traditionally the unelected hereditary House of Lords which, free from the scourge of party whipping, has been the more rebellious part of Parliament. From Pitt the Elder’s hit & run insurgency against the War in the Colonies in 1776 all the way through to its fight against draconian detention without charge of terror suspects for up to 90 days it has always been a thorn in the side of the government of the day.
The term “Parliamentarian” is to describe someone who believes that Parliament is sovereign and should have the power to challenge government, form its own legislation and so on. There are plenty of them about but none have really been able to affect any real change in one go.
What has happened is that other outstanding aspect of British politics: incremental, organic change and this has happened over the past 250 years.
The first big changes were the great reform acts of the Victorian era which gradually rolled out the vote to more and more men and later in the early 20th century women as well. Later the creation of select committees to scrutinize legislation gave more theoretical power to Parliament.
One recent and subtly important milestone came in recent years in 2003 when under severe pressure to justify a war in Iraq the Blair government offered a free vote on whether to go to war with Iraq.
This was a game changer as it brings in the last and most important part of British politics: precedent. It is the glue which binds the British constitution together and without due recognition of precedent all business of state would grind to a halt.
In the UK, precedent states that there are matters of state reserved for the Crown (but are exercised on the Monarch’s behalf by the Government). They are for example the power to sign treaties, the power to declare war and make peace and so on. In 2003, government had effectively handed over the power to declare war to Parliament. No longer can a government be able to simply declare war without the consent of Parliament in a free vote.
Further gradual progress has been made in recent years. Yesterday saw the start of a new system for electing members to select committees by secret ballot rather than being hand picked by party whips.
Another recent development has followed announcements of plans to encourage the “peer review” of national budgets at a European Union level to prevent budget deficits and Greek style debt fiascos. A plan approved by every member nation of the European Union. Except Britain.
The reason why Britain has opted out? Because Parliament by right is the first place you announce and share your budget. Parliament is sovereign and thus is the first body to scrutinize governments, legislation, budgets, buggies, budgies, anything. So it has caused consternation in the corridors of power in Berlin and Paris to hear that, awfully sorry but we’re not really all that keen on that idea thank you.
So as I come to the end of this grand ramble I think back to my days as a wide eyed teenager in those early summer days of 2001 the more I believe my lecturer that despite all the blows and turbulence that has rocked one of the longest running democratic institutions on the planet over the centuries, when she said; Parliament is sovereign, she meant it.
