Taspher’s Constitution Proposal
This is part of a series of threads I am making which cover the constitution of the UK and how we can fix it. You can find the main page for these threads here.
The Proposal
Explaination
Once again, this is quite long. It also deals with two distinct but related topics, the Great Council, and the Shires (or the first layer of local government). The Great Council is a thing that technically exists still, but has not been called since Charles I. This version of the Great Council is an independent, slimmed down version of the House of Lords. It is mostly concerned with regency, heraldry, and acting as an advisory committee to the King.
Part VII(B): To prevent local councils from becoming “miniature-republics” within the Kingdom, and to help to justify the role of hereditary peers in the House of Lords, I propose the merging of the current positions of High Sheriff and Lord-lieutenant into a single, hereditary position. The new High Sheriffs would be the King’s representatives in the Shire, but also represent their Shires in Parliament, in the House of Lords. The idea for the High Sheriff is also to act as a moderator and a sense check on the local Council. By having a hereditary official there to veto things and ensure that they don’t do anything stupid.
Most of this part is a mirror of the Monarchy section, but for the Shire.
Parts VII(C): We establish the nature of councils and how their elections happen.
Perhaps the most important thing is that we let councils devolve power from themselves. I expect this to happen for moderately sized cities (e.g. Nottingham within Nottinghamshire). Councils could go back to the county and district model, stay unitary, or be unitary but give an area autonomy (Cornwall and the Isles of Scily).
Parts VII(D): Removes direct election of Mayors and has them appointed by the High Sheriff. This is mostly because I think that Shire councils should mirror the Parliamentary model rather than the Presidential model.
This also removes PCC elections, instead making PCCs and the new thing called the Counsel General (the Atorney General for Shires) appointments made by the Mayor.
Parts VII(E): Self-explanitory. This is mostly what councils do right now. The only thing that this definitely does is devolve the NHS down to the council-level. This is mostly because it is currently devolved to the devolved parliaments. I don’t feel too strongly one way or another here.
