What is the UK constitution made of? Exposing the ‘hidden wiring’

Late last year, the Cabinet Office published in draft form a document called the Cabinet Manual. Subtitled ‘A guide to laws, conventions, and rules on the operation of government’, it was initially intended by Gordon Brown, when instigating it as Prime Minister, as a possible first step towards a written constitution for the UK. This plan has subsequently been dropped, but the manual has survived. Andrew Blick discusses what has become the most comprehensive statement of Britain’s constitution hitherto published.