NEW LABOUR AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

OLD LABOUR AND THE CONSTITUTION Old Labour in government offered little in the way of constitutional reform 1970s: plans for reform of the House of Lords and for devolution for Scotland and Wales came to nothing

By Contrast “New Labour’s constitutional programme, which was built on the agenda developed towards the end of the Kinnock era, was in fact the most radical put forward by a major party for more than 80 years.” Martin Burch and Ian Halliday, New Labour and the Constitution

THE CONSTITUTIONAL MEASURES LISTED IN THE MANIFESTO 1997 Removal of right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords and greater political balance among life peers Modernisation of the House of Commons A referendum on the voting system for the Commons Devolution of power to Scotland and Wales An elected Mayor and Assembly in London Regional development Agencies and regional chambers in England and legislation ‘to allow the people, region by region, to decide in a referendum whether they want directly elected regional government’ Human Rights Bill

THE CHALLENGE TO THE BRITISH SYSTEM WHAT WAS CHALLENGED ? A centralised state Government by an elite with a closed bureaucracy Executive dominance of the legislature and limited constraints on the exercise of power

THE CHALLENGE TO THE BRITISH SYSTEM WHAT WAS CHALLENGED ? A centralised state Government by an elite with a closed bureaucracy Executive dominance of the legislature and limited constraints on the exercise of power WHAT WAS OFFERED ? Devolution Freedom of Information legislation Electoral and parliamentary reform and civil liberties legislation