Unchanging Big Ben is like constitution

There is something immensely reassuring about the famous ‘bongs’ of Big Ben, which have now restarted after many years of silence. My own parliamentary office looks straight out over the Elizabeth Tower (as it should more properly be known), but you can hear the bongs throughout the palace. Big Ben symbolises the unchanging changelessness of our great British constitution and Parliamentary rule of law.

Unwritten as it is, our constitution is the product of a 1000 years of history and, no matter who is in Government, citizens can be reasonably assured of good Government and a stable constitution. If you sat down with a clean piece of paper you would not necessarily design it as it is, but then again nor would you design Parliament as it is. Both do a first-class job.

So I very much welcomed the Supreme Court’s judgement that the Scottish National Party may not hold any kind of binding or officially recognised referendum on Scottish independence. The fact is that they had one only a few years ago, which they lost. That must be an end to it.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to abolish the House of Lords. However, hereditaries, political appointees and the great and the good in general who currently make up the House of Lords are doing a first-class job of scrutinising the legislation which the Commons send to them. You tinker with the Constitution or even worse fundamentally upset it at your peril.

The primacy of the House of Commons means that when this week I added my name to 50 backbenchers supporting an amendment to the Planning Bill currently before the Commons, that action had a real effect and has occasioned a fundamental rethink by the Government. My colleagues and I firmly believe that there should not be centrally set targets which dictate how many houses we should build, when and where. That should be a matter for local people through their elected councillors. We have also been discussing last week’s Budget and again all kinds of backbench opinion has been brought to bear on the Chancellor. The House of Lords is not allowed to consider financial or budgetary matters – a convention which would doubtless collapse if there were to be a duly elected Senate or Upper House, especially if that House was controlled by a different party to the party in Government.

Our constitution, which is the product of 1000 years of evolution, produces good legislation and holds the Government to account. The moment that you undermine that stability is the moment that good Government in the United Kingdom comes into question. The timelessness of Big Ben symbolises the iconic stability of our constitutional arrangements.

James Gray

MP for North Wiltshire

Santa's letters can come in braille

Santa is once again expecting to receive millions of letters from children around the world with endless lists of what they’d like to receive in their stockings when the big day arrives.

To ensure children living with a vision impairment in the UK get a reply from Santa, he has teamed up with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to make his letters available in accessible formats, including audio and large print. This year, Santa’s friends at Hallmark have also helped him write replies in braille so every child with a vision impairment can read their letter independently.

last year, the elves sent more than 1,400 letters from santa to blind and partially sighted children across the UK, helping them experience the same magic of Christmas as sighted children. If you know a child who has a vision impairment and who would love to receive a letter from Santa send their Christmas letter to Santa Claus, RNIB, Northminster House, Northminster, Peterborough, PE1 1YN, email santa@rnib.org.uk by December 20 for an email response with a large print attachment or visit the website at www.rnib.org.uk/santa. Postal letters and website requests need to be sent by Friday 2 December.

On behalf of Santa, his elves and all at RNIB, we wish you a Merry Christmas.

Michael Owen

RNIB

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