About Us

Now is the time for a real constitution in the ‘United’ Kingdom, or whatever is left of it at the other end.

1) The country now requires an elected Head of State (commonly known in most countries as a president).

Whether or not the new Head of State runs alongside the Monarch is a matter for debate. Is it possible for the Monarchy to retain any constitutional role?

The president should be elected in a different cycle to Parliament. This is important to protect the government from tidal waves or fads for one single issue or party which has a sudden wave of popular, but short-lived support. In other words, the government and presidential elections should be separated by at least two years. Where a general election is called at shorter notice, the presidential election should be delayed by two years, and vice versa. The two sets of elections should be separated in time as far as practically possible. A deputy president is required to stand in, one who has the full support of the president, who runs with him in elections, and provides a back up during the course of the presidential term.

2) ‘Lower’ House (House of Commons)

The House of Commons has a primary role in debating legislation by representatives (MPs) who are elected in a ‘General Election’ by everyone of voting age.

In order for such an assembly to be justified, it would be necessary to have MPs from each party to be proportionate with the number of people who vote for them.

3) Upper House (House of Lords)

It may still be useful to have an Upper House (such as the House of Lords). It has often been argued that the House of Lords, whose members are selected, rather than elected, has a special advisory function. The fact it is unelected gives it a different, more specialised role. However, not being elected, its credibility is often challenged.

4) Head of Government (Prime Minister)

The Prime Minister, as leader of his party, is the one to lead government on the international stage. should not be

What can be done?

With popular support, campaigning, lobbying and demonstrating, anything is possible.

What should be done?

Constitutions need to evolve and the current system is disfunctional.

We would like to form consensus on some or all of the following objectives:-

Formation of an assembly or parliament which is directly elected by the public voters, and which provides representatives from parties proportionate to the votes they receive. This requires Electoral Reform … read more…

We believe the best way to achieve this is using a type of proportional representation known as the Single Transferable Vote (STV). This is the system currently used around the world, including in Scotland, Ireland and elsewhere.

STV means voters have preferential votes and where the first choice does not get in, the second choice may do, or failing that, the third. It means that everyone who has voted for a candidate with substantial support has a representative from that party representing them, and their constituency, in partliament. It retains the direct link between MP and constituent, whilst also providing a proportionate vote.

The Tories would be less likely to dominate Parliament disproportionately, as they do now, so they are likely to obstruct this system as far as they can get away with.

The Head of Goverrment or Prime Minister should no longer have the power to disolve or suspend Parliament. This is a travesty of democracy.

Our Vision

We believe in the right to self-determination. The difficulty can be to define a group, and how far to go.

We believe in representative democracy, i.e. everyone gets to vote, every vote is counted – the best way we know of to deliver this is the Single Transferable Vote (STV). This system is already used in Scotland, New Zealand and many other parts of the world.

My Own Story

My own personal interest in the constitution is probably underpinned by study of the history of nations, the history of failing nation states, and a sense of morality in every individual’s right to a steak in his or her own destiny.

In that sense, the right to political representation is comparable to the cause of abolishing slavery, and also the rights of any ethnic or religious group to self-determination.

I have campaigned for many years for a fairer voting system in the UK, and for human rights around the world.

What has prompted me to finally create a forum for debate, a blog to promote ideas, is the actions of the British Government in 2019 to suspend Parliament. In my view, this stands in contradiction, not only to my own principles, but to those of any self-respecting individual that values personal freedom.

It is no use leaving others to do the dirty work. Someone has to speak out. We must all say “If not me, who then?”

On Thursday September 5th 2019, I rallied a mixed group of protesters outside 10 Downing Street to chant “Stop the Coup!” We were dispersed and forced to move on by the police. The message of the establishment seems to be that freedom has its limits.

Read our Reform 2020 Constitutional Manifesto.https://reform2020.org.uk/the-new-constitution-for-2020/