Party's Over: Blueprint for a Very English Revolution (Societas) - Softcover

Sutherland, Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0907845517 ISBN 13: 9780907845515

Publisher: Societas, 2004

Synopsis

Consider the following paradox: As the leaders of both of the main British political parties subscribed to the neoconservative doctrine on Iraq, everybody else in the birthplace of parliamentary democracy was effectively disenfranchised. Yet one of the rationales supporting the deployment of UK forces in Iraq was the wish to export democracy to the Middle East. The Emperor would appear to have mislaid his clothes (see Gordon Graham's Case Against the Democratic State). Judging from the lack of ministerial resignations in the wake of the Butler enquiry, Britain is no longer a parliamentary democracy. The classical doctrine of joint and several ministerial responsibility is revealed to be a fiction, and Lord Hailsham's verdict of 'elective dictatorship' is a better assessment of the British constitution. By contrast unelected bodies like the BBC are now far more accountable for their actions. The reason of this paradox is the monopoly power of the ruling party, controlled by the Prime Minister. The UK political party started off as a loose association of like-minded MPs. However, in recent years the tail has been wagging the dog ― politicians now have no alternative but to choose and then fall in line behind a strong leader with the charisma to win elections. This book examines the historical forces that gave rise to the modern political party and questions its role in the post-ideological age. If we all now share the liberal market consensus, then what is the function of the party? Parties in America are a lot weaker, so the book considers Graham Allen's argument to emulate the US system of checks and balances, but concludes that we would be better off reinterpreting our own constitution more literally. When the Chancellor really was a minister of the crown, every line of the budget was meticulously scrutinized. The key to the changes advocated in the book is the replacement of the Victorian ballot-box with a modern system of representation, based on the jury-selection principle.

About this title

About the Author

Sutherland is a Microsoft Certified Professional, IT consultant, trainer and technical author.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

It might well be asked what right I have to produce this book. After all we already have our Constitution Units and Democratic Audits, our Butlers and Bogdanors, so why do we need a provincial scribbler like myself to opine on such matters?

Like Ferdinand Mount’s The British Constitution Now (1992) this book is a heady compote of history, political science, philosophy and polemic (plus a pinch or two of Trinitarian theology for seasoning). Obviously no single author can be an expert in all these fields — one of the best recent multi-disciplinary works, The British Constitution in the Twentieth Century (Bogdanor, 2003), required nineteen authors and 800 pages. But sometimes it helps if one is not too bogged down in the details. J.S. Mill wrote a comprehensive analysis of the British constitution (Mill, 1991) without a single mention of the Cabinet, even though it had already become the most important body in the ‘efficient’ government. Dicey claimed that the absolute nature of parliamentary sovereignty has its origins in the ‘undisputed supremacy throughout the whole country of the central government . . . at all times since the Norman Conquest’ (Dicey, 1885, pp. 183–4). Clearly Dicey was unaware that the right of feudal kings prevailed in a decidedly patchy manner. And Bagehot and Low were equally myopic as to the constitutional function of the judiciary (they didn’t even bother to mention it).

The lack of a chapter on the fourth estate — the quintessence of modern political power — from Bogdanor’s magisterial collection is not unlike these earlier omissions. This is especially the case in the light of Anthony Seldon’s argument (Seldon, 2003), that the prime function of the Cabinet under Thatcher and Blair was presentation and media management. Excessive disciplinary specialization often leads to the inability to see the wood for the trees. On top of this many of the specialist think tanks writing on constitutional reform are so keen to influence public policy decisions that they tend to gloss over historical, theoretical and philosophical issues.

So there is still a role for the non-specialist dilettante. After all, the tentacles of government have now extended themselves into all aspects of our lives, so the rules whereby our government functions are no longer just of concern to constitutional lawyers and academic specialists.

Perhaps Burke might have been alarmed at the subtitle of my book, but there is nothing proposed herein that is alien to our ancient tradition of public affairs — the book certainly owes more to Aristotle than Paine. If anything is a modern and alien invention, it is the political party — the bastard grandson of one of the darkest and most bloody periods of British history. The proposals contained in this book presage reformation rather than revolution. Luther, after all, saw his role as no more than the removal of modern corruptions from a body that he revered.

Things have come to such a pretty pass since 1774, when Burke wrote his Speech to the Electors of Bristol that it’s hard to imagine how independence of means and (consequently) minds might be re-introduced in such a way as to re-establish his ideal of parliamentary representation (see pp. 74–5, below). There comes a time when those of a conservative disposition, like myself, have to awake from their dogmatic slumbers and realize that the ratchet has turned so far that there is precious little of value left to conserve. Radical thought is called for, even though, like Burke, one shudders at the Jacobin overtones.

If there is merit to be found in the arguments presented in this book then it is down to others with more experience of the mechanics of government to flesh out the details. My aim is simply to dust down my bugle and sound the reveille. Thirty years ago Nevil Johnson lamented the ‘retreat from constitutional thinking’; now is the time to mount the cavalry charge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Societas
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0907845517
• ISBN 13: 9780907845515
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 150