Supreme Court: A Constitutional Shift of Power.

Yesterday was one of the great seismic moments in the long evolution of the English structure of government, with its reach into the three other nations of the Union. It was an historic repositioning of the power balance between the Executive and Legislature. The date will live as a milestone in our country’s journey through history.

For two centuries there  has been a gradual syphoning of the power of the Monarch into the hands of the monarch’s ministers, which in turn has reduced the power of parliament and the authority of the Speakers. A strictly whipped party system reduced the role of backbenchers in the Commons to little more than legislative dogsbodies and political lobby fodder. All power lay with the prime minster, exercising the Royal Prerogative, supported by a cabinet of ministers exercising the same power within their departments. Parliament legislated but the government decided what, and what each day could and would be discussed. The prime minister decided how long each session would be and how long a parliament should exist, before dissolution and a general election.

The Supreme Court, unanimously, incisively, brutally and with no punches pulled, reinforced and enshrined in law a major restoration of the absolute sovereignty of parliament over everything and everybody, including the executive, its powers and by definition the monarchy itself. All exist because parliament allows and any attempt by any part of it to impede parliament is unconstitutional. From now on the government will do parliament’s bidding in law. The government remains the executive, but in a country owned by parliament. This will, over time, give a very different complexion to what we know as government.

History will see the decade of 2010-2020 as the period of Constitutional Change, beginning with the Fixed Term Parliament Act, followed by the Supreme Court Ruling on Article 50 and capped by the Court’s ruling over Prorogation. The backdrop will certainly be the shambolic upheaval of Brexit. The narrative might evolve in the following decade to include the break-up of the United Kingdom. If that happen the trace will go back further to the advent of Scottish and Welsh devolved government, which has been a success, encouraging a bolder appetite for independence, and power sharing in Northern Ireland which has failed, driving a final reunion of all parts of Ireland into one independent Republic.

The creation of the Supreme Court will undoubtedly be seen as critical to the authority in the public’s eye  it  enjoys as the constitutional arbiter and guardian, which is much easier to relate to than its predecessor, the Law Lords, sitting in the House of Lords. If all this comes to pass it will become the story of England, its leadership of the Union of the British Isles, the building of the British Empire, the ending of both and its return to Go.