As Labour settle into being in power for the next 5 years, what hope is there for small ‘c’ conservatives, patriots and freedom lovers that there will be anything left of our wonderfully unique constitution and political system once they are finished?

After all, they are planning to implement more semi-constitutional legislation, hand power to even more international bodies, increase powers to unelected quangos as well as creating new ones, involve the judiciary even more in the political process and devolve more Westminster powers to the regions and home nations.

The net result will be to further reduce the sovereignty of our Parliament and thereby weaken UK citizens’ ability to participate in the democratic process.  A bloated State will meddle in our personal affairs even more with freedom and choice eroded.  Decision-making and accountability will become more opaque and narrow as unelected quangos and judges influence and control even more of our daily lives without having to earn a single vote for the privilege of doing so.  Semi-constitutional legislation will continue to tie the hands of future administrations regardless of their political persuasion.  Our precious Union will be further weakened.

A bleak vision of Britain in 2029? Well despite the gathering storm clouds, there is perhaps some cause to be hopeful for the future of our great nation.

All of this, along with the tax rises, their stance on immigration, the wokery and the net zero madness is going to make the Labour party very unpopular, very quickly.  And with a parliamentary majority that lacks an equivalent number of popular votes, their’s is a house built on sand.  Come the next election, this will open the door for a centre-right party to form the next government, with hopefully, a sizeable majority.

So what objectives should this new government’s legislative programme be trying to achieve and what should its key actions and priorities be?

Its main purpose should be to carry out a ‘Great Reset’.  That is, to get us back to a place before all the far-reaching constitutional and political changes implemented by Blair and Brown, which were further entrenched by successive Conservative administrations, and from which base, Starmer’s Labour is undoubtedly going to go much further still.

The guiding principle for all these changes will be the application of common sense, pragmatism and achieving the best timing possible.  The programme should consist of seven key objectives:

1. Restoring the sovereignty of Parliament in Westminster
2. Restoring equality before the law
3. Restoring and protecting freedom of speech
4. Strengthening and securing our Union
5. Increasing citizen’ participation in the democratic process
6. Reforming the Civil Service and public sector to make it politically neutral
7. Reducing the size and reach of the State

Objective 1 – To restore, as far as possible, a fully sovereign parliament in Westminster.

Let me start by saying that this does not mean that the UK should seek to isolate itself or cease to uphold the spirit of international law and cooperation.  But it is only a sovereign Parliament that can act in the best interests of the British people, unhindered by the rules and regulations of treaties, international bodies and agreements that are now outdated, have become highly politicised or are even actively seeking to undermine the autonomy and agency of our nation state.

The UK has never had a written constitution and this is something which is generally much lamented by parties on the Left who seek to fix many things that they regard as basic ‘rights’ and effectively set them outside the reach of the normal political process.  But, ours was, until recent times, a purely political constitution with sovereignty invested in our Parliament via our elected representatives and the Government.  With this arrangement we have successfully managed to create and withdraw from a global empire, cope with two world wars, enter and exit the European Union and created devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whilst still keeping the Union intact.  All this has been achieved in a civilised, orderly way through a legitimate democratic political process.  This is a model of government that has served us well, it is something to be rightly proud of and should be preserved and protected.

Achievement of this primary goal should take precedence and guide and influence all other objectives.  First and foremost will be withdrawal from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) that governs our relationship with the EU and repeal the associated UK legislation.

This will be followed swiftly by withdrawal from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).  The Human Rights Act (HRA) which embeds the ECHR into British Law will also be repealed, ending the 30 years of semi-constitutional legislation that has prevented us from securing our borders, deporting dangerous criminals and allowing common sense to be applied in a whole range of other settings.  An added bonus of the repeal of semi-constitutional legislation like the HRA will be the end of the involvement of the Courts and unelected Judges presiding over what are essentially political questions that should be handled by our elected Parliament.

The temptation (and pressure) to replace the HRA with a Bill of Rights or some similar legal instrument should be robustly resisted – this is highly undesirable and undermines the primary objective of restoring a sovereign Parliament.  The concept of ‘human rights’ has taken hold in the public’s imagination over the last three decades as being in general a ‘good’ thing and repealing the HRA will be framed by opposition parties as being ‘bad’ for the average citizen.  So there will need to be an education programme to explain the changes and reassure the public that their basic rights will not be affected, but will in fact be enhanced as we reinstate universal equality before the law.  This education programme can and should start right now.

In addition, Net Zero legislation will be repealed (and not replaced with anything else) and the many quasi-non-governmental (‘quango’) bodies, such as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will be scrapped.  Responsibility for their duties will be passed either to elected politicians or the Civil Service (who are ultimately accountable to elected politicians).

Objective 2 – Restoring equality before the law.

This is surely the best that any citizen can hope for in a liberal democracy, but this has not been the case in recent times with semi-constitutional legislation such as the Equality Act (EA) creating competing groups and prioritising the rights of minorities over the majority.  The EA and Labour’s recently announced Racial Equality Act will be repealed and replaced with a suitable discrimination act which gives protection to all citizens without elevating the rights of one group over another.  This will permanently remove the legal basis for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the Public Sector Equality Duty – both of which are engines for stoking division, creating mediocrity and killing enterprise in our public and private sectors.  This is not to say that DEI will be banned – this is a free country after all – but I am certain that without public funding and endorsement, underpinned by the Equality Act, it will disappear fairly rapidly.

Objective 3 – Restoring and protecting freedom of speech.

A healthy functioning democracy requires that ideas and arguments are given proper scrutiny, that they are able to be debated and tested, without fear or favour.  This is to prevent harmful ideas gaining currency and ensure that good ideas are developed and taken forward.  We have just seen Labour’s first attack on free speech with the cancellation of the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act.  This action will inevitably see the return of cancel culture and no-platforming of speakers in our seats of learning.  This is harmful to our democracy, to our universities and to the young people who attend them.  Instead, a freedom of speech act will be implemented that will include the requirements of this higher education bill as well as restoring balance in other areas such as freedom of speech on social media.  This new act will also redefine and limit the concept of ‘hate speech’ to a very narrow definition of inciting violence against another person or group.

Objective 4 – Strengthening and securing our Union. 

Unfortunately, some genies cannot be put back in the bottle, however, by 2029, with nearly three decades of experience of devolution, a review of devolved and reserved powers will be undertaken to see what has worked and what has not.  For example, a lesson learned from Covid surely must be, to have underlined how ludicrous it was that a small island nation did not have a single joined-up approach to healthcare during a pandemic.  Add to that the failure of the NHS under Labour and the SNP in Wales and Scotland, respectively and there is a strong case for taking back control of some or all of the NHS in the devolved regions.  Regional devolution in England will also be subject to a similar critical review – have devolving decisions and funding to regional leaders really made decision-making more relevant and democratic, has it increased the autonomy and prosperity of those regions?

Objective 5 – Increasing the public’ participation in the democratic process. 

Voter turnout is trending lower than ever at general elections, with two key issues often cited that there is a lack of trust in politicians and the political process and a feeling that whatever way people vote, it doesn’t change anything and so their vote doesn’t count.  In some ways, this is an inevitable symptom of a first pass the post system, nonetheless, this situation must be remedied.  There are different ways that this can be achieved, whether that is through introducing a form of proportional representation and selective use of direct referendums to allow citizens to have their say on important political and constitutional issues.  In addition, the use of postal votes should be scaled back to make them only available to those who need them for medical reasons.  This will ensure that postal votes do not distort the election process, are not open to abuse, are not ‘lost’ in transit or simply arrive too late to be counted.

Objective 6 – Reforming the Civil Service and the Public Sector to make it politically neutral. 

Over the last few decades, we have seen one public institution after another captured by creeping left-wing dogma and ideology from the Civil Service to the Judiciary, the Military, our education system and even the Church of England.  To address this, we will need to commence our own ‘long-march’ to unpick this Gordian Knot and restore balance and neutrality; again, work can and should commence on this immediately.  The first priority will be the Civil Service as they are so integral to the running of the country and implementation of public policy.  Previous Conservative administrations have talked tough on this topic and then done very little.  The challenge of the task is nothing short of open-heart surgery – keeping the patient alive whilst you replumb the most important organ in the body.  A detailed strategy and plan will need to be developed to achieve this goal with determination and ruthlessness, but…with realistic timelines.

Objective 7 – Reducing the size and reach of the State. 

This final objective is perhaps a golden thread that should run through all the others.  This includes addressing things like the ever-expanding welfare state and the dependency culture this has created in millions of Britons – perpetuating worklessness in individuals, families and communities.  The welfare state will be dramatically scaled back to the safety net that it was always intended to be.  In its place personal responsibility will be promoted and even included in the school curriculum.  Back to work programmes will be facilitated along with changes to the tax system to make work pay i.e. to make it a more attractive choice than claiming benefits.  The voluntary and charitable sector will be encouraged to assist citizens to participate in and support their own communities and interest groups.

So, what will these changes look and feel like for the average citizen?  The country will be more unified and harmonious as we celebrate our common values rather than focusing on superficial identity traits.  Our elected politicians and government will have the power to take action and apply common sense to address the problems and issues of the day.  Citizens will be more engaged in the democratic process with their voting choices reflected in the makeup of Parliament and policy outcomes.  Workplaces and our public institutions will be depoliticised.  Freedom of speech will dominate the public square with an emphasis on respect and tolerance for differing viewpoints.  Personal responsibility will become the norm rather than dependency on the State.  There will be more opportunity, with selection based on merit rather than identity.  There will be a renewed confidence in our everyday lives as citizens, as our great nation once more begins to flourish both democratically and economically.

Read Part 2: Delivering The Great Reset: A Plan for the Plan