Pages 50-67 (warning the article below was made by the tory likes of Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Jesse Norman with some ideas on reforming healthcare that might outrage some users)
https://whatwouldvirchowdo.files.wordpr ... _party.pdf
I was reading these ideas put forward by UK politicians from both left and right and thought they were pretty solid for restructuring the UK political system, one which I feel is currently broken from a constitutional standpoint among others. These areas are to do with federalism and localism, two things that the UK lacks when compared to Germany. Canada, Australia, to a certain extent Spain and the notorious United States of America (
).I personally feel the UK could be well suited to a federal model of politics as well as having stronger localism for our communities, here are some ideas that I liked from these articles:
Federal Level:
Houses of Parliament
- House of Commons 325 Members (half of the current HOC number of members)
- The Senate 240 Members (same as proposed in the HOL Reform bill 2012 only with 240 total elected, with half elected every 5 years and serve 10 year terms)
Reserve Powers:
- The Crown
- The United Kingdom
- The Constitution
- Ministers of the Crown
- Foreign Affairs
- Defence
- Human Rights
- Central Bank
- Monetary Policy
- Central Taxation
- Government Borrowing
- Currency
- Regulation of financial services
- National Security
- Nationality
- Immigration
- Extradition
- Emergency Powers
- The Civil Service
Policy areas outside the list can be legislated on but would require a double majority in the Senate meaning a majority of each nations' Senators (e.g 7/12 Scottish Senators, 5/8 Welsh Senators, 4/6 NI Senators, 61/120 English Senators and 74/146 Senators as a whole), these could also be vetoed by all four subnational Parliaments with a 2/3 majority in the four which will result in the four First Ministers to advise the Monarch to veto the bill.
Supreme Court
- Stays the same though have three judges from each UK nation.
Subnational Level:
- English Parliament: 533 Members
- Scottish Parliament: 129 Members
- Welsh Parliament: 80 Members
- NI Assembly: 90 Members
Can legislate in any policy area that isn't reserved at federal level, but most notably legislating on things like:
- Agriculture
- Fisheries and forestry
- Education
- Environment
- Excise Duties
- Subnational rates of taxation
- Food standards
- Gambling
- Consumer advocacy
- Health (the NHS)
- Abortion
- Law and justice
- Courts
- Legal profession
- Prisons
- Control of firearms, explosives and air guns
- Local government
- Rail franchising
- Sport and the arts
- Subnational transport
- Various welfare and housing related benefits
Local Level:
Local councils are in great need of more power and should be more self sufficient. Having more legislative and financial control will encourage more people to take an active interest in local politics as more powerful councils will make them more efficient, more accountable and more attractive to good candidates.
- Policies in regards to School admissions policies, hospital cleanliness, speed bumps, council workers’ wages solved by local councils as opposed to Whitehall
- Scrap VAT and replace it with a Local Sales Tax set at the level of a county or metropolitan authority with local councils free to vary the rate according to
their spending needs
- Councils should be allowed to raise the remainder of their budgets by whatever means their electorates approve with options for additional top-up revenue would be fees and charges for services, a local income tax, a property-based levy, a a local business rate or nothing at all
- Have subnational govt give extra funds to more deprived councils if needed
- Devolve all aspects of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt to local level
- Directly elected Sheriffs, with real powers to direct the local police force priorities and responsibility for supervising prosecutions and punishments, would appoint and dismiss Chief Constables, set their own targets for the force, make their own Policing Plans, control their own budgets and allocated his or her funding as a block allocation and the power to set local sentencing guidelines
Seems pretty solid to me, but I highly doubt politicians would want to give even more power away.
