- Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the Union must be reformed to avoid the UK becoming a “failed state”.
- Brown urges Boris Johnson to set up a commission on democracy to review how the UK is governed.
- Urges to learn from countries like Canada, Australia, Germany, and America, where second parliamentary chambers are more representative of regions, with minorities more easily outvoted guaranteed a stronger voice.
- Says Boris Johnson should champion armed forces and NHS as everyday benefits.
- Gordon Brown’s words come amid polls showing support for Scottish Independence, possible Irish reunification and even increasing support in Wales for a referendum on independence, although Wales is still in favour of remaining in the Union for now according to polls.
My Views
I am a strong supporter of reform in the United Kingdom, I would like to see most specifically an end to the First-past-the-post system and a move over to a proportional representative system which more fairly represents votes of each person, it is unfortunate that the Liberal Democrats failed to initiate a new voting system under the Lib-Con coalition. I would also like to see reforms to the House of Lords and indeed have them be more representative of specifically regions within England and of Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, it is important they are still a checks-and-balance but one that is more democratic, the number of members in the House of Lords needs to be greatly reduced as well. As for the electoral system that should be implemented for the House of Lords, there are a number of options, it should certainly be another proportional representative system and the regions/countries as a whole should elect the representatives, while the Commons has smaller multi-seat constituencies, perhaps covering counties. Elections for the Lords can be done in quarters at each election rather than all at once like the Commons.
There would be a population formula that determines how many representatives each county/counties get in the Commons which is reviewed after each Census by an Independent Electoral Commission. For the reformed House of Lords there should be a constitutionally fixed number of representatives for the four countries in the union, that is balanced between them. It probably will need to be a bit more complex than I am putting forth, but in general I want to see something like this.
In turn Councils could also be given more powers to more adequately represent and provide for towns, cities and other areas below the county level as a way to balance MPs in the Commons focusing on counties rather than smaller areas. But again it is of note that counties would elect multiple MPs based on their population and so such MPs could also be allocated to represent specific areas of counties after elections.
I believe all of this would make the Union more attractive, especially with the House of Lords being more of a House of the Union, giving better representation and voice to all apart of the union. The House of the Union could also be given exclusive powers to safeguard UK countries and regions rights and powers, and also having to ok any legislation that effects such UK countries and regions, such for example can allow autonomous movements in Cornwall and Yorkshire to have larger voices in a House of the Union.
Even better to accompany this should be a modern-day constitution that sets out everything clearly, and what could even be used to implement all of the above in some form – but we all know it won’t be this simple and will most likely be a gradual process bit by bit as it usually goes. But one can dream.
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