Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is planning to strip Downing Street of key powers in some of the most far-reaching reforms of the British premiership for a generation.
In an audacious attempt to draw a line under the era of Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brown is looking at guaranteeing parliament the right to approve war and remove symbolic "royal prerogative" powers from the Prime Minister and hand them to parliament.
He has also said that he will revisit many of the fundamental National Health Service reforms of the Blair years and demand that general practice surgeries be open at the weekend and that doctors be on call in the evenings.
Doctors were given the right of opting out of out-of-hours care two years ago, under a controversial pay deal, signed by the then health secretary John Reid that awarded them a 22 percent pay rise last year.
The chancellor has long made it clear that he would like to build on the precedent set in 2003, when Britain's involvement in the invasion of Iraq was launched only after a vote in parliament.
The chancellor intends to go much further, possibly giving parliament the right not just to approve war, but also a key role in declaring armed action.
Brown is believed to be in favor of transferring key royal prerogatives to parliament. These are ancient monarchical powers, including the right to declare war and sign international treaties. They are exercised by the prime minister in the name of the monarch, under Britain's constitutional monarchy.
Handing elements of the royal prerogative to parliament would represent a direct break from Blair. In 2004, Downing Street flatly rejected such a proposal by the Commons Public Administration Select Committee, on the grounds that it was "not persuaded that the proposal would improve the present position."
A source in the Brown camp said: "Gordon is looking at transferring powers from the royal prerogative to parliament. These are not changes that will be handed down: they will be subject to discussion."
The source made clear that there would be safeguards in the parliamentary legislation that would enshrine the reforms.
"There would be safeguards to allow the executive to act immediately in emergencies where it is necessary to safeguard the lives of British forces," the source said.
Brown, who is convinced that Labour will win an unprecedented fourth consecutive term only if it embarks on the most fundamental reforms, believes enhancing the role of parliament is the best way to demonstrate the government has abandoned its old ways.
Blair was often accused of politicizing Downing Street -- and downgrading parliament -- by packing No 10 with political advisers who were seen as more powerful than ministers.
The chancellor accepts that Blair broke new ground when he allowed members of parliament to vote on a substantive motion on the eve of the Iraq war. By convention, pre-war votes are only ever held on a motion to "adjourn the house" if opponents can muster enough support.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS