Another strength of the UK constitution is that there is sovereignty of Parliament. This is a strength as its elected body is accountable to the people. For example, MP’s are elected by the people whop stand in Parliament, which therefore means that the people in power have the general publics support to make decisions. But the nature of our constitution means that the location of sovereignty is a bit of a muddle.…
Perhaps, but we should have the ability to send our own people to parliament or at least vote for the British lawmakers. Tabitha: Quite frankly, Britain has allowed us to self govern ourselves for quite some time now. It seems as though we have now taken an interest because the king is now asserting stronger power.…
Perhaps the greatest challenge to the pre-1997 constitution was the plethora of legislation which provided for devolution. Under the Government of Wales Act and the Northern Ireland Act, the national assemblies were granted certain devolutionary power, whereas in the case of Scotland, under the Scotland Act, the nation was given a parliament. While the powers granted to each state vary , there has been a clear impact made on both the Westminster model of parliament and the constitution. This is particularly the case in Scotland, which was granted the executive powers once held by the Scottish secretary and can legislate on devolved issues such as health and education. Scotland also holds tax-varying power, yet these are minimal and are capped at 3%. Many argue that devolution has transformed the Parliament in…
One strength of the UK constitution is the flexibility that it has, for the reason that the constitution is uncodified or unwritten and is therefore not entrenched in law. Due to the fact that the UK’s constitution is uncodified or unwritten, it has an opportunity to modernise itself to the ever changing society or any other new circumstances that may arise. An example of the flexibility of the UK’s constitution is the recent implementation of the Same Sex Marriages Act (2013). This was brought in due to the number of LGBT people that wanted to get married, but, because of the current laws that were in place, could not. This shows one of the ways in which the constitution does modernise itself in terms of society. However, the flexibility that is expressed by the fact that it is unwritten may in fact be manipulated if the ability to change the constitution were to “fall into the wrong hands”. For example, if somebody completely left wing or completely right were to come into power, they could effectively manipulate the system and change the constitution to suit them and their supporters. While this argument is an effective argument, it is doubtful that the government of today will allow a person, hypothetically with close-minded views such as these, to be put in any place of power. Overall, today’s government, in terms of flexibility does not stand a high risk of being manipulated, as there are appropriate measures in place to stop this from happening.…
Parliamentary gives Parliament superior and legal authority as they can make or unmake any Act of Parliament they wish and although the House of Commonsâ has most of the dominance they always need the support of the House of Lords to pass an Act. Parliamentary sovereignty refers to this joint power. The Human Rights Act 1998 is a law passed by Parliament that has limited the application of parliamentary sovereignty as it is made unlawful for any public body to act in a way which is incompatible with the Convention although the courts can only make a declaration.…
One way in which the UK constitution is no longer fit for purpose is that it lacks restraint…
Firstly, Britain, amongst many other countries, claims to be a democracy. This would suggest that UK citizens, have effective influence over government, and over decisions that affect them. However, there has been much controversy over this claim, some arguing that power lies in the hands of just a few, and others standing by the allegation that power in the UK is widely distributed.…
A modern nation-state such as Britain prides itself upon its strong democratic values, yet it is easy to question whether the individuals we elect, the people to whom we give our support and legitimize, are truly the ones with power. Has power shifted away from the individuals we elect in recent years? Has power ever truly been in their hands? To effectively begin answering such questions it is vital to lay out a theoretical framework in regards to what power entails. Steven Lukes’ three-dimensional approach to power allows for an analysis of power that goes beyond the decisions made in Parliament by those we elect, as well as attempting to understand the less obvious, preference-shaping nature of power. It is important to note that whilst it is perhaps difficult to effectively gather, or identify empirical evidence for the third-dimension of power, problems similarly arise when attempting to do so for the first and second face power; however from a theoretical standing the three-dimensional approach enables a much more thorough examination of where power lies in Britain today.…
As the MP for Bath John Patten put it, “They undermine Westminster. What they ensure, as we saw in the last election, is if you have a referendum on an issue politicians during an election campaign say oh we're not going to talk about that, we don't need to talk about that, that's all for the referendum.”. One example of this occurring would be the General Election of 2001, where one hotly contested topic was the prospect of Britain joining the Euro. Many arguments should have been made regarding our relationship to the Single Currency – none were, however. This is because Gordon Brown indicated a referendum would be held, effectively sweeping the entire issue under the carpet, and it was never seriously considered again. Incidentally, the referendum was never held, and the enormous Constitutional Issue ceased to be a topic of note, at the whim of the Government. This isn’t to say the reverse is not true. Blair’s Government held a referendum in 2004, on the proposition of North-Eastern England devolving to have its own elected assembly. The Regional Assemblies were a large project for the Labour Government, but the North-East shot it down, with 77.9% of the votes cast showing a no to the…
When compared to other countries in the World, the UK is undoubtedly democratic because of the parliament which is a representative institution. This is a definitive guarantee that the voices of the people are heard throughout the government as the people’s wishes are properly represented. Due to public outcry, David Cameron’s proposal for military action to Syria was shut down in the houses of Commons. This illustrates the significance and power of parliament as it has direct control over all legislation. Parliament can vote against governmental proposals and block them, thus ensuring that they do not become self-interested or corrupt; this ensures that the UK is considerably democratic. Each person has an MP to promote and represent their personal interests, allowing them a voice in parliament.…
The Parliamentary system within the UK is widely regarded as one of the best, most democratic and efficient systems of government within the world. With functions such as legitimacy, representation and scrutiny being carried out on a daily basis, Parliament is the most important and powerful part of the UK political system. However, the effectiveness of Parliament in fulfilling its functions has come in to question for a number of reasons, and many people feel that the UK’s Parliament is in fact no longer successful in properly fulfilling its functions.…
Parliament is the supreme law-making body in the UK. This means that there are no constitutional restrains on legislative powers. This also includes the fact that courts are under an obligation to give effect to legislation passed by Parliament and not question statutes. Most importantly, Parliamentary Sovereignty is not a constitutional relic. This is simply because UK courts cannot strike down Act of Parliament. First assertion of Dicey is that Parliament’s legislative competence is unlimited. This was shown in Mortensen v Peters (1906). In this case, it was held that parliament is supreme over international law and UK courts felt bound to apply the UK Act, even though it was in contravention of international law. Another case that illustrates…
The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Growing up I heard this phrase in folktales as a “wolf cry”-- a cry that is so ridiculous that nobody would believe it. Now that global warming is a major environmental issue, the saying doesn’t sound so out of place. Most people might say: what is global warming? That’s the question that was running through my mind when I first heard we were watching a documentary on it in my English 130 class. The film is Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and it is about the causes of global warming and what it is doing to our planet. Being an environmentally involved citizen and growing up with conservative Republicans as parents, I was torn between not really liking Gore and this extreme reality that I felt was an impending doom on Mother Earth. The day before my writing class my dad called me and I brought up the fact that I was watching Gore’s film; his reaction was, “I’m paying for you to do that?” I tried to tell him it wasn’t about Gore and when I brought up global warming he claimed it was a scheme to get money and that our wor...…
* UK powers of the government - while dependent on the electoral mandate – is unconstrained by any fundamental document and subject to Parliament’s approval.…
The UK adheres to a democratic, parliamentary system of governance known as the Westminster system. This system…