The Economist - USA (2020-11-21)

TheEconomistNovember 21st 2020 49

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B

ritons have been gripped in recent

days by a drama superior to anything

Netflix has to offer. Dominic Cummings,

the all-powerful adviser who mastermind-

ed Brexit and had Boris Johnson in his

thrall, has been ousted by a triumvirate

made up of Allegra Stratton, the prime

minister’s press secretary, Munira Mirza,

his policy chief (who used to be a revolu-

tionary communist—but that’s another

story) and his girlfriend, Carrie Symonds.

Those who disapproved of Mr Cummings

not just for his appalling manners but also

for his radicalism, of whom there are many

both inside and outside the Conservative

Party, are hoping that Mr Johnson will re-

vert to being the pragmatic One Nation

centrist he was as mayor of London.

That is certainly the impression that the

prime minister gave this week when he

launched a ten-point plan to turn Britain

green. But Mr Cummings’s great project

will roll on without him.

The plan, which has the support of the

Tory party and was outlined in the 2019

manifesto, is to weaken the judicial, politi-

cal and administrative limits that have

been placed on the power of the executive.

Brexit is only the beginning. By the time of

the next election, ministers will have con-

trol over more policies, enjoy more discre-

tion and face fewer restraints than they

have for decades.

Meg Russell, director of the Constitu-

tion Unit at University College London,

warns of “democratic backsliding”. Charlie

Falconer, the shadow attorney-general,

sees Britain falling “under a majoritarian

dictatorship”. Some see parallels in Ameri-

ca or even Hungary, yet this is a distinctly

British story: a conservative counter-revo-

lution against checks and balances to exec-

utive power built up over half a century.

In a televised lecture in 1976, Lord Hail-

sham, a former Lord Chancellor, called for

the overthrow of Britain’s ruling dictator-

ship. There was no junta of mustachioed

generals and secret policemen; James Cal-

laghan, the Labour prime minister, was a

gentle fellow. Rather, Hailsham argued,

Britain was an “elective dictatorship”. Par-

liamentary sovereignty, the underpinning

principle of Britain’s uncodified constitu-

tion, granted the legislature the power to

make and undo any law it wished, he ex-

plained. A government which commanded

a majority in the House of Commons en-

joyed a power absolute in theory and con-

strained in practice only by political reali-

ties and mps’ consciences. “Only a

revolution, bloody or peacefully contrived,

can put an end to the situation,” he said.

Hailsham proposed a written constitu-

tion, inspired by those in Australia and

Canada, which would curb the power of

Parliament. He wanted a federal system of

devolved parliaments for Britain’s nations

and regions, a bill of rights and an elected

House of Lords. The new arrangement

would be overseen by the courts. The

queen would stay, of course.

Yet the regime he criticised was already

being dismantled. From the 1960s, judges

and legal academics responded to the ever-

bossier post-war state by developing the

doctrine of judicial review. In a series of

cases, they marked out the scope for judges

to overturn the decisions of ministers who

had overstepped the powers Parliament

Constitutional reform

The executive unchained

The Tories have a radical plan to remake the state. Brexit is only the beginning

Britain

52 Bagehot:AmodernMachiavelli

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