I apologise in advance for the infodump. A written constitution is something that the UK sorely needs, as our current "constitution" consists of ancient documents, gentlemen's agreements, int'l treaties, legislation, etc. All of which can be overridden by a simple majority in parliament. 🧵1/5

Niall Ó Conghaile@nialloconghaile.bsky.social · yesterday

Missed this at the weekend. Welcome to the 19th century, Mr Burnham. A little bit more seriously, can we now have a moratorium on "but the UK already has a constitution". A🧵

You are obviously right, Jonathan But I think the key question is whether there is a desire to identify certain principles or values or relationships that are seen as foundational and that could not be changed by a simple act of Parliament but whose amendment would require special formalities.

He won't though. It would open a can of worms. It would have to set out how constituent parts could leave, or - like the Spanish constitution - make it clear that they can't.

The 'devolved nations' is the preferred, more emollient term.🤨 Together with England, we are the 'home nations', though maist o Ireland left 'hame' mair nor a hunner year ago.

As a Labour PM, if a constitution requires further devolution (let alone dissolution), doesn’t he have a strong disincentive to do it, given the historic reliance on Scottish Labour votes?

Superior law to King-in-Parliament Sovereignty would be 'interesting' to implement -referendum (also outside UK practice- ie not binding)?

The type of Constitution England would accept will never be acceptable in Scotland & Northern Ireland. IMHO an English Constitution can only come about after #IrishUnity & #Scottishindependence

Not written, codified. And entrenched, above parliamentary sovereignty, and that takes real effort to amend. I might get the crayons out in the next few days with my thoughts of what should be in said codified constitution, of you’re interested that is…

We’ll get back to you in about 300 years, 275 if we put our minds to it

It'd be possible, with multi-party agreement and maybe a properly-organised referendum, to create a constitution which could only be amended by two successive parliaments. That constitution would then become the new "normal," superseding "parliamentary supremacy." I believe Norway has such a rule.

Perhaps it won't excite people in the Kop, in the Stretford End, or at Easter Road, but would a written constitution be PM Burnham's supreme legacy to the British people? Read more 👇

Niall Ó Conghaile@nialloconghaile.bsky.social · yesterday

This could be PM Burnham's greatest gift to the UK, guaranteeing the rights of the - forgive me - King's subjects and the subject nations 😉 8

Andy Burnham has started like Schumacher at Spa-Francorchamps. But introducing a constitution to the UK would be another level. Thréad⤵️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Niall Ó Conghaile@nialloconghaile.bsky.social · yesterday

Missed this at the weekend. Welcome to the 19th century, Mr Burnham. A little bit more seriously, can we now have a moratorium on "but the UK already has a constitution". A🧵

It's the culture of the elite which has not allowed debate on constitutions, federalism, proportional representation, and HR. All these have been constructed as foreign. The UK doesn't need it because they think it's inherently liberal, better, bla bla bla. Many progressives share the exceptionalism

What this means is a simple act of parliament by a government elected on 30% of votes in England can shut down Hollyrood. Plenty of parties have realised there are votes in England in blaming Celts (although, is Ms Badenoch married into a Scottish family?) 5

the British will never do this, simply out of the principle "we're special, we HAVE to do everything different than the rest of the world !"

Something as dramatic as this would first need a MASSIVE groundswell of public opinion. The public can't be dragged by such momentous change, they must be - or at least feel to be - in charge. So a leader would have to campaign for it, have it forefront of manifesto and majority must vote for it.

I believe that is partly because the elite has always painted human rights are foreign 🤦 and gone about the magna charta, which they don't actually know anything about. I was astonished when studying law at Kent that my criminal law tutor was against the Human Rights Act 🤦 So culture matters 3/n

This is where i feel he is heading. Such a devo mishmash and insane centralisationto sort out internally before proposing joining eu. The pavlovian responses to *anything* resembling a step into this century is predictable. It's gonna be a long haul.

It's that parliamentary supremacy that's a big obstacle. For any codified constitution to be worth the paper it's printed on, it would have to explicitly abolish that doctrine, or at least exempt itself from it. Otherwise any PM who found the constitution inconvenient could repeal it.

Hmm, not sure about that. Not as if Britain didn't raise heavy taxes on its people there after the Seven Years War. But the taxes in the colonies had no precedent and (as had earlier been complained of in Ireland) the colonies had no representation involved in deciding what was taxed and how much.

A constitution would more than likely turn us from being the monarch's subject to being citizens of the UK. So very unlikely to happen.

On Russia or Prussia: It should surely be decided by which one lands their hot air balloon in Phoenix Park first!

A constitution for the UK? PM Burnham thinks it's a good idea. Thréad 👇

Niall Ó Conghaile@nialloconghaile.bsky.social · yesterday

Missed this at the weekend. Welcome to the 19th century, Mr Burnham. A little bit more seriously, can we now have a moratorium on "but the UK already has a constitution". A🧵

Something about strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords... 😂

If I may take the coming home analogy over the edge. The home the British can come home to is the main mansion and not the little annex they built for themselves because that was demolished when they left.

The UK PM is wrestling with this (likely Prussia), but it will ultimately be a major constitional (in the other sense) change. Secondly, however, there is the protection of the rights of the currently devolved nations. In short, there is none, esp. for Scotland and Wales. 4

No, there isn't. It's very wrong to suggest there is. Those of us resident in the EU don't need seeds of uncertainty planted by some random UK resident. Solidarity with EU citizens resident in the UK as ever. I know they are anxious at this moment. @the3million.bsky.social

There is a land commission looking at this and there have been two land reform Acts. As far as I understand it, they are trying to break up some of the very big estates; protect land for the common good; put in better protections for communities who want to buy their estate & build stronger

It is what the UK voted for. People wanted to 'get Brexit done' and it did for many of our rights.

You can call them sweetbreads. That doesn't make them either "sweet" or "bread". What they're calling a constitution is not one (it may be a dog's dinner, however). 2