Home page Return to Index   Book Review The Briton's Quest for Freedom - Our unfinished journey This book addresses the contemporary constitutional issues facing the people of Britain. It describes how even today we have not achieved some of the constitutional settlements proposed in the 17th Century. Such as the promotion of freedom and happiness through universal suffrage and a supreme Parliament of faithful representatives reflecting the free will of the people. Instead we find a Parliament subservient to the Prime Minister and government of the day. Representation in Parliament is exclusively that of political parties. The free expression of the people, as reflected in their preferences, is marginalised. We have political parties with the support of less than 20% of the electorate gaining power to govern, able to impose their own legislative agendas on a majority who never voted for them. The Briton's Quest for Freedom analyses how this happens. It analyses the degree to which electorate preferences are upheld in our general election system, government formation, Parliamentary legislation and in the application of the law. Families & individuals Most books on constitution tend to give more emphasis to institutional roles, relationships and power issues. This book is more balanced and closer to home. It starts out by placing the free expression of individuals and families at the centre of attention. Our political system is assessed on the basis of the degree to which electorate preferences are upheld. The author, Hector McNeill, identifies in excess of 50 significant systemic constraints on the expression of electorate preferences by government. This is a measure of the degree to the extent of the denial of a more open and direct freedom of expression of the people of Britain in influencing decisions affecting them. An effective explanation of a complex topic McNeill identifies the components of constitution of relevance to the voter. He identifies the different ramifications of the electoral system, formation of government, Parliamentary processes, separation or lack of separation of powers, the House of Lords, legislation and the application of the law. Up-to-date The book is completely up-to-date and includes an analysis of the evolution of politics in Britain since 1945 ending in mid-2007. The decline in the relevance of political parties to meeting modern challenges is traced. Some interesting and relevant issues related to our educational system, including selection, are reviewed. This discussion includes some previously less explored but relevant aspects of family sibling relationships of significance in the formation of people's social preferences of relevance to politics. The potential impact of good information on people's preferences as well as decision-making processes is explained. The failed majority principle An enlightening section compares the record of electoral/legislative cycles and jury decisions in achieving non-contentious outcomes on the one hand and important contributions to individual freedom on the other. Juries, especially in those cases where they nullified the law, remained uncontentious as far as the jurors were concerned and yet gave rise to decisions of seminal historic importance and which today underpin much modern legislation aimed at securing of individual freedom. McNeill explains that this arises from the operation of juries not operating on the same basis as the electoral majority principle. In the case of juries, of fundamental importance is access to good information and on the community conscience's willingness and freedom to shift its opinion, under no coercion, towards a single preferential decision. The Minority Principle McNeill extends this analysis giving it substance, shape and procedural form so as to end up with some 20 essential considerations to be afforded to individual preferences in all decision-making. These are transformed into a fundamental constitutional imperative called the Minority Principle which contains the 20 essential considerations set out as articles. The Minority Principle at first site appears to be counter-intuitive largely because most of us are conditioned by our somewhat contentious political decision-making systems based upon the majority principle. McNeill, it would seem, senses this possibility of reader confusion or scepticism and, as soon as the Minority Principle is set out, he immediately provides a couple of examples of how it would be applied in practice. In about half a page the power of the Minority Principle becomes evident in its securing faithful constituency representation as well as a Parliament fully reflecting the will of the people. Four chapters then describe how the Minority Principle would be applied to the general election, formation of government and Parliamentary procedures, legislation and to the application of the law. The Minority Principle is straightforward in its application and is shown to provide a means of eliminating the 50 major constraints on voter preferences currently imposed by our political system. A United Kingdom? The problems facing the Union arising from poor devolutionary models in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are reviewed. These are seen to impose an equivalent administrative burden similar to that affecting the whole Union. Thus devolution only imposes the same 50 types of constraint on the freedom of the people. Indeed, devolution would appear to favour the specific interests of local politicians and political parties without improving the status of individual freedom of expression of the electorate. The Minority Principle is shown to provide a basis for eliminating such marginalization by providing communities of all sizes and in all nations within the Union with a governance which is more flexible and responsive to community preferences. In marked contrast to the current devolutionary settlements the outcome is a significant enhancement in local freedom of expression in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales on an equivalent basis. The West Lothian Question? The operation of the Minority Principle removes from the political landscape any possibility of any community representatives, MPs, having any say in questions involving the constituents of other representatives. This is not only applied to issues of nationality, for example people from Scotland or England, but applies within nations also. The system is therefore equitable in terms of representation and it neutralizes the effects of the significance of the large differences in national population size in the determination of decision outcomes. The proposed system therefore removes a significant cause of contention which has motivated talk of a break up of the Union. Juries This book contains sound arguments in favour of trial by jury and provides a convincing case against those who wish to see juries reduced on the basis of "case complexity". Besides proposing the Minority Principle as a central component to a constitutional settlement for Britain, McNeill calls for a wider application of juries. Indeed, he explains how, contrary to popular myth, this would make settlements at law cheaper and better quality. Knowledge and preferences Contrary to the current thinking concerning an elected House of Lords, McNeill proposes a completely different role as independent institution mapping and scrutinizing law as well as taking on a central role by providing a service concerned with the standards and quality of information and knowledge applied in legislative proposals. This function is taken up in a proposed Communion Information Service. The justification for this is set out clearly in a chapter concerned with evidence concerning the role of knowledge in the formation of preferences. Besides proposing a radical improvement in the standards of information used in the political system for the preparation of proposals and decision making, McNeill also proposes the adoption of a formal system of decision analysis so as to ensure all relevant information is considered including all policy options. This emphasis is to shift the gear of British politics away from bias and partisan information towards a more rational and objective basis for decision-making. Sovereignty issue The penultimate chapter concerns Sovereignty where a range of issues is raised which political parties would probably prefer had been left dormant since they represent a direct challenge and questioning of the behaviour of political parties on issues which need to be resolved. McNeill's arguments here are particularly powerful since they relate to fundamental issues of the protection of all Britons from possible abuse and excesses of governance. It is apparent that most of the United Kingdom's constitutional problems would be resolved through the application of the Minority Principle. However, there remains a threat to British freedoms in the form of the increasing supremacy of European Law being handled by increasingly decandent and politicized European legal institutions. Parliamentary reform and political party funding The author makes very short work of so-called Parliamentary Reform as reflected in different electoral voting systems. These are considered to represent a fundamental confusion between the representation of the people and representation of political parties. These are not considered to be equivalent and the book contains much evidence to demonstrate this in the way the political party system mishandles electorate preferences. He expresses the opinion that political parties should receive their financial support exclusively from their membership, somewhat along the lines of NGOs. Practical & therefore inspiring By the end of this book the reader is made aware of many serious issues of representation facing the people of Britain and their causes explained followed by a guided tour through a practical solution in the form of a constitutional settlement for Britain. This book succeeds in approaching a complex issue in a straightforward and practical manner. The outcome is a convincing demonstration of how a supreme Parliament, reflecting the free will of the people, could be formed and how it would operate. All of the current complaints about British democracy seem to have been addressed in this book. Being so practical its final form and logic are inspiring; a rarity for modern works on constitution. Comprehensive notes The book contains a comprehensive Notes section including references, observations and more detailed expositions of main text content. Much of the exposition content is a more detailed treatment of original work providing fascinating insights to a range of relevant topics mentioned in the main text. The book has an ENMT word usage for readers for whom English is Not their Mother Tongue and a General Synopsis of the Scope of the book and Chapter Summaries. Essential reading for anyone interested in the future of British political life including the general public, human rights advocates, scholars, students of political science, British politics, constitutional law, political history, religion, morals & ethics as well as politicians and political journalists.