The Economist - USA (2020-11-21)

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TheEconomistNovember 21st 2020 49

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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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