Repairing British Politics - 2nd Edition by Richard Gordon Gordon (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book presents a major new constitutional analysis of the way we are governed.

Book Synopsis

The 1st edition of this seminal text was written as a response to the constitutional crisis of 2009, sparked by the 'expenses scandal', which led a general distrust of the UK's entire political order.

A decade on, it is no exaggeration to say that the situation has dramatically deteriorated. The UK's constitutional order faces an existential crisis, with Brexit placing unbearable pressure on the political and legal architecture. All this makes the need for a written Constitution more pronounced. Retaining the easily accessible style of the first edition, this book addresses how this might be put in place.

Part 1 sets out a number of arguments in favour of a written Constitution, as well as the most common objections. Part 2 presents a working draft in the form of one possible model for a Constitution. Observations and explanatory notes are attached to each section of this draft Constitution. This model Constitution is intended as the first stage in a public debate, designed to provoke further discussion about the content and method of legislating into law a written Constitution. Part 3 contains the draft of the Act of Parliament that would be needed to introduce any form of constitutional change.

Rarely has a book been more timely or essential.

Review Quotes

... a must-read for anyone who wants to get a modern grip of our constitutional angst ... should be mandatory reading for those who want to think about this issue properly.
Times Online

... an outstanding piece of constitutional scholarship... it will be impossible for anyone to seriously engage with the debate about moving to a written constitution without having digested and considered Richard Gordon's work.
Public Law, Issue 3

[an] interesting and thought-provoking book...Creative and imaginative thinking
Open Democracy

About the Author

Richard Gordon KC, a member of Brick Court Chambers, London, is recognised as one of the UK's leading silks in administrative and public law and human rights. He is a Visiting Professor at University College London and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has acted in many of the most important public law and human rights cases in recent years, and appears regularly before the House of Lords and Court of Appeal and in foreign jurisdictions as well as before the ECJ and European Court of Human Rights.