Reforming the constitution: process matters

Andrew Blick argues that policies impacting significantly on the UK constitution were central to the programme underpinning the formation of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition in May 2010. They include fixed-term parliaments; a reduction in the number of MPs combined with an equalisation in the population size of parliamentary constituencies; a referendum on AV; and a requirement for referendums on ‘transfers of powers’ from the UK to the European Union. Because of the centrality of these reforms to the coalition agreement reached between the two parties it was deemed politically necessary that they be implemented swiftly and altered as little as possible by outside influences or institutions.