even if that does not happen - it will be another cobbled-together waste as a legacy for future generations to disentangle.

Is the House of Lords reform any better? Well, at least it works. But it goes almost nowhere. Not even halfway to an elected second chamber. Even if we eventually get one, I suspect that it will be subservient to the House of Commons, because what this is really about is sharing power, and no MP wants to do that. There is no idealism there. They simply wish to maintain as much power as possible while paying lip-service to the democracy lobby. This is not good enough. Sovereignty, which they are so fond of mentioning, is in fact infinitely divisible among different branches of government (including Europe), for the simple reason that it does not rest at Westminster, or London, or anywhere else. It rests with the electorate, present and future. In the early days of democracy, in Greece, when populations were small enough, democracy included everyone, absolutely everyone (unless of course you were a woman, or a slave, or non-Greek, but anyway...). Our democracies are so big that this is not possible. So we use representative democracy. In some countries, like Germany, they use an even better system called 'federalism' - yes, that is the evil 'f' word. However, I mean the correct definition, not the strange idea of federalism that Euro-phobic Tories have, which actually better describes Britain than Germany. In Germany, power is devolved equally to the Länder (yes, that is the pun in the title). We need the same, or similar. If one area has regional government, like Scotland - all must have it, and in the same form. That means elected, law-making, tax-varying parliaments for every English region as well as Wales and London.

A Bill of Rights is another worthy step. This is a short, simple set of rights that every British citizen should have, such as the right to free speech, assembly, religion, vote, etc. These are inalienable, and are entrenched so that no future Parliament can revoke them. A written constitution on the other hand, is a much larger list which can be constantly added to or updated, which includes the sort of things that are individual laws at the moment. They can be repealed. These measures guarantee human rights to all. There is a draft version of a Bill of Rights with this article. It gives an example of the kind of things that might go in one.

Next, Westminster itself must be reformed - some kind of PR in the Commons, to destroy powerful majorities. For the Lords, more likely regional representatives, as in other countries. The Lords would have to have nearly identical powers to the Commons, or it is useless. I personally favour a non-constituency list system for the Commons, with the regional affiliation moved to the Lords, operating a non- party political chamber. The two chambers would be different, so that they could act as effective checks on each other. The Executive would probably still sit in the Commons ( I don't see any practical way of getting them out ), so there would have to be some limited dominance for that chamber.

Finally, the Head of State, in our case the Queen, should act as a figure of continuity to smooth changes in Executive power. A President, elected for a seven year term could serve that function well (I'd personally like to see a President Boothroyd, but then I suppose we could get a President Savile, or a President Wolf, off of Gladiators. That's democracy for you!). Their powers would be strictly limited. We are not talking a French or American-style President here. Simply a Head of State, dealing with constitutional problems. The Queen could still be retained as a kind of cultural Head of State, for religious, cultural and economic functions. That sounds cold, but really her position would be little altered. She has few political powers now.

I believe these changes are necessary for a modern, civilised country. It is about bringing government as close as possible to people, and providing enough checks and balances in the system to prevent the sort of scenario I mentioned earlier. Such a scenario is highly unlikely in the present climate - but things change, as they did in Germany after the First World War. It is the possibility of such a thing that scares me. n
My Bill of Rights  g