header-logo header-logo

16 December 2022
Issue: 8007 / Categories: Legal News , Constitutional law
printer mail-detail

NLJ this week: Gordon Brown’s blueprint for constitutional reform

104750
Can Gordon Brown save the UK? Amid mounting support for Scottish independence and rising alarm about corruption and cronyism at Westminster, the former prime minister last week released the report of the Commission on the UK’s Future. In this week’s NLJ, Cambridge University professor Marc Weller assesses the 150-page contents of the report.

Does it promise major constitutional change, or simply more of the same ‘in disguise’ as change? Proposals include abolishing the House of Lords and creating an English Grand Committee of Parliament, but the report also emphasises ‘economic regeneration and a better spread of economic opportunity and growth across the UK’.

Weller writes: ‘The strategy of the report seems to be to try and build enthusiasm for a renaissance of Britain as a whole—a new cool Britannia, as it were—while addressing the national question for Scotland in a more incidental way; the premise being that a successful UK will be enough to dissuade anyone from leaving it.’

See Professor Weller's full article here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles

Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles

Bell Yard Kysen appoints senior legal PR and ex-government communications adviser, Liz Giles

Clarke Willmott—Lee Edwards

Clarke Willmott—Lee Edwards

Clarke Willmott boosts Southampton commercial property team with addition of partner Lee Edwards

Lime Solicitors—four promotions

Lime Solicitors—four promotions

Lime Solicitors announces four promotions

NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Should a conviction stand when a later ruling reveals that the law underpinning it was wrong? The answer exposes a clash between finality and justice
The Environment Agency can prosecute offences beyond environmental legislation where proceedings support its statutory functions, the Divisional Court has confirmed
back-to-top-scroll