‘Tears Before Bedtime’ A Look Back At The Constitutional Reform Programme Since 1997

Abstract

Within a year of the Blair Government taking office, Bagehot in The Economist (1998) was accusing them of presiding over ‘a frenzy of constitutional reform” which needed “to be underpinned by some unifying political vision’. This article describes how that situation came about; and surveys briefly how the constitutional reform programme has developed in the meantime. It concludes that the Government still shows little appetite for contemplating or presenting constitutional change in the round and finds some of the consequences of its own reforms to be a source of embarrassment or frustration. Nevertheless they have transformed the landscape of governance beyond recognition and in some aspects, irrevocably and their achievements in this area seem likely to be a significant part of their monument as an administration.