Legal Reform of the Constitution - introduction of a 5 year term for Parliament.

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Farhana Rahman9th May 2011

 “We are introducing legislation to fix parliamentary terms. The date of the next General Election will be 7 May 2015. This is a hugely significant constitutional innovation. It is simply not right that General Elections can be called according to a Prime Ministers whims. So, this prime Minister will be the first Prime Minister to give up that right”

In the light of the above quote, critically evaluate the effectiveness of this measure in achieving legal reform of the UK constitution.

A constitution is a framework of rules which determine how a country should be governed. The constitution of the United Kingdom is unwritten, unlike the USA’s constitution, the rules of the state are not written in a single codified document. The British constitution was defined as a “whole system or government of a country, the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government”. An unwritten constitution derives from various different sources such as statute law, common law, treaties, the royal prerogative and convention. The introduction of a 5 year fixed term Parliament has taken a huge step in reforming the UK constitution. These proposals were introduced by Nick Clegg; “ First, traditional powers of no confidence will be put into law, and a vote of no confidence will still require only a simple majority. Secondly, if after a vote of no confidence a Government cannot be formed within 14 days, Parliament will be dissolved and a general election will be held. Thirdly, there will be an additional power for Parliament to vote for an early and immediate Dissolution”. Evidently, this will give our constitution a stable platform, but how stable will that platform be exactly?

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The current system has no fixed terms outlining an executive regime. It has the flexibility of calling call for an election as long as it is 5 years within the previous election. This power acts as an advantage as they may call for an election when the time is most suited to their needs. The current system is scrutinised to be a Prime ministerial system or governance as the executive dictates the calling for election according to his/her ‘whims’.

The proposal of a 5 year fixed term raised many concerns amongst the public. The haunting fear of having a ...

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