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A NEW CONSTITUTION To End the Excessive Power of Prime Ministers |
A CIVIC REPUBLICAN MANIFESTO 2009 For Great Britain VIRTUE FREEDOM ASPIRATION WEALTH PEACE |
DEBT FREE MONEY
To End the Misery of Debt Based Money |
PENTASKEL (Matisse Dancers version) |
REDISCOVERING BRITISH CLASSICAL REPUBLICANISM |
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Poet
(1792-1822)
BRITISH REPUBLICAN |
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"A true republic cannot exist until the majority of the citizens are both desirous and worthy of political life" Charles Bradlaugh, 1871 |
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The sections can be read in any order but it is best to start with the three INTRODUCTION sections.(Grayed out pages have not yet been posted) --------------------
Economic Enfranchisement Non-aggressive Foreign Relations
Authority to Create Constitution Lower House Upper House Judiciary Supreme Court Public Services Monetary Policy Regions and Federation (to be completed)
Meritocracy Civil Society Crime and Penal reform Vice Cultural and Intellectual Life Church Disestablished Virtue and Happiness Young Generation
Monetary Policy (to be completed) Existing MPC and FSA Banking Money Flow Currency Industry
First British Republic History of Republicanism
Problems of Current System Advantage Votes Electoral System
National Flag Federal Flag
Republican Theory General History of Republicanism in Britain First Republic Period in Britain British Constitution Economics Enlightenment
The Need for a Republican Party
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THE NEED FOR A REPUBLICAN PARTY There has never been a more appropriate moment for the creation of the Republican Party of Great Britain. We have just had ten years of New Labour and before that eighteen years of Thatcherite Conservatism. The political bankruptcy of the two main parties is evident to all - even their friends. Voter apathy is at an all time low and sinking. The younger generation is given little hope of ever being able to participate in the wealth of the country. The fallacy of running a constitution where all power is concentrated in the Prime Minister is now plain to all. And the regular revelations of sleaze and graft among the most powerful people in our land are a tiresome reminder of this. We desperately need a thorough overall of our political system. This will never happen through any of the existing parties. They lack the imagination. They lack the will. They will never hang their colours on the mast of any proposal that shifts power away from the Executive and establishes a proper balance of power within government. Their vision does not extend beyond jostling with each other for grabbing onto vote grabbing tax cuts, playing to the gallery on law enforcement issues and rubbishing their opponents record on economic management in the hope of distracting attention away from their own. A Republican Party is the party to establish a proper Republican Constitution in Great Britain based on principles of Civic Republicanism, but it must also be a new party to challenge the existing ones on the complete range of policies issues. It must become one of the major parties of this country, if not the major one. But is not the history of British politics littered with failed attempts to establish new political parties? Perhaps, although there is a major exception in the Labour Party that, a hundred years ago, emerged within just a few years to become one of the top two parties in terms of electoral support. So it can be done. It will be done if the clear and identifiable need is there, and who can honestly deny that the need is there. Those who try to walk away from this self-evident fact are themselves in denial. In their hearts they know this. It will be done. Because the impetus for change is already there. It only needs to be unlocked by a group of people ready to stand up and spell out the Constitutional Republican message of what exactly is wrong with the existing situation and stating clearly what must be done. Republicanism proper is not just about the Monarchy. The real issue is about where real power lies. That is what these pages are about. That is what Republicanism is about today in Britain - and what it was about in Britain from the beginning. Republicanism is a big word for many in Britain. And one that engenders wariness, even fear. But this is only amongst those who have little awareness of the history of this country and its politics. True Civic Republicanism is in many ways ingrained in the British political fabric even if we might sometimes call it something else. A Republican Party will be the natural home for many disaffected traditional Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters. These people used to be the dominant forces in their parties before the Populist signatories to the post-Thatcherite Consensus took control. New Labour may have looked to some like a break from the past but it is now clear that it was a development of 80s policies as if the pain of the 90s never happened. The yuppie rip off profiteer was born in the 80s but grew up to maturity in the twenty zeros. Meanwhile the Tories and the LibDems, after ditching numerous ineffectual leaders, have both saddled themselves with identikit media nonentities as their figureheads. And Ex-Prime Minister Blair has catapulted himself off into stratospheric earnings, unashamedly cashing in on his recognisable profile while his disgruntled ex- colleague wrestles with intractable problems of a failing economy and political impasses, surrounded by political pygmies and yes-men-and-women. As all the parties are scrambling to occupy the holy grail of the middle ground, the middle ground has become very crowded. Except the "middle ground" is no longer the middle ground; for in the post-Thatcherite Consensus it has shifted it away from commitment to the broad values of society towards commitment to a narrow money-dominated privateering. Leadership has been replaced by focus groups. Signposts have been replaced by weathervanes. Politician have no direction so they cannot give it. They point whichever way the wind is blowing - or whichever way they think it is blowing. The discussion has to revolve around personalities because there is nothing else at stake. A major role of the Republican Party must be to inform. There is a desperate general lack of understanding in the Kingdom of what real republicanism, Constitutional Republicanism, Civic Republicanism, really means and the new world it offers. If some of the pages here are long, it is because there is a lot to tell. We have to build the picture piece by piece. Citizens of most Modern states know what republicanism stands for, both in idea and practice. Why are subjects of the Kingdom left in the dark? The answer to that question is all too clear. Our leaders want us to be in the dark. We have lost the dynamic towards humanist government that is so much a part of our nation's history. But we only need to look into ourselves to rediscover it. The founders of the First Republic on British soil in the seventeenth century did not turn to Republicanism by importing a continental theory and applying it to the English situation. They mostly constructed the Republic from the English political institutions they already knew. Although the Restoration followed in 1660, many of the achievements of the First Republic were consolidated by the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Act of Settlement of 1701. The Constitutional Monarchy that resulted contained elements that resulted from the First Republic. This worked reasonably well for its historical time as long as the Monarchy could maintain its authority. The problem is that the Monarchy has now lost authority, so leaving the Prime Minister with all the power. This creates the imbalance that poisons the whole of the British polity. The first British Republicans used to talk about their Good Old Cause. We can now talk about our good New Cause. This time it will not slip from the mainstream. The slipshod ease with which the constitution can currently be altered has been referred to in these pages. We will not need to apologise for taking advantage of this by framing, voting in and installing the new Republican Constitution within a single Parliament. Following a period for the people to assess its working, permanent adoption will then be subject to a referendum. From then on there will be no turning back. But who will want to? The current political world we inhabit will seem like a bad dream - but a bad dream that was true. Hand in hand with the establishment of the Second Republic must go a major revision to the way money is created in our economy, for without this we can never generate real prosperity for all the people, young and old. Once, again this country has always been at the forefront of ideas on Monetary Reform and must again boldly give the rest of the world the lead in reversing the indebtedness that most of us suffer from for most of our lives, and which reduces other people, in poorer countries, to little more than economic slavery. Once again, this can never happen through the offices of the current major parties. Debt is something they have always encouraged. The economics of debt is the only thing they understand. The culture of debt and the power it bestows on capital and banking is intrinsic to their world view. The idea that true wealth might derive from fine companies and their dedicated work forces is to them an incomprehensible idea. None of the main parties have ever sought to reduce the power of capital over companies. As well as the much earnest work to be done, political life can become lively, cultural and sexy again. The old kings and queens used to have Courts which attracted the most brilliant minds and personalities of the day. Current monarchs are too timid and covetous of their image for anything but dull, stuffed-shirt entertaining. The sight of a floodlit Brian May playing rip-snorting guitar on the roof of Buckingham Palace during the Silver Jubilee may not be the most naff-free image, but it is a better pointer to how the place might be, under the Republic, than a gloved hand on the balcony coyly waving to a fly past. Bring it on! The President established in Buckingham Palace can open its doors to a lot more fun. Fun! Now there is a word we might want to rehabilitate. It does not mean binge and bling. Those things are not fun anyway. They are sad. It means putting a shine on the cultural, political and intellectual life for everyone. And that can only happen off the back of general advancement and general public wealth. Trying to secure your own little pot in the shifting sands of boom-bust cycles is not fun. It is misery. The culture of Republicanism, Radicalism and Reform is there, still, in the soul of British society at large, as it always has been. But now, as time moves on, this culture will be acting and reacting even more strongly. No one - but no one - will be able to keep the lid on it.
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* The Republic of Britain 1760 to 2000 by Frank Prochaska (2000) p.xvi
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