News update:

The Unspoken Constitution

The Unspoken Constitution is a unique, satirical account of how we are governed in the United Kingdom. It has been written by Stuart Weir and Stuart Wilks-Heeg of Democratic Audit.

After a party conference season dominated by rival proposals for slashing public expenditure, concerns about the state of our democracy appear to have been quietly returned to the back burner. As Parliamentarians return to Westminster, we hope our provocative pamphlet will help re-open the debate on constitutional reform, which shows every sign of shutting down, just months after it had dominated the UK news agenda.
 
Please click here to download the full text.

The Unspoken Constitution is published by Democratic Audit in association with Unlock Democracy and OurKingdom, the British blog of Open Democracy, with financial support from the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust. It is being launched in association with the POWER2010 campaign for a new politics.

For press and media enquiries please call Daniel Harris at DHA Communication on 020 7793 4038.

Praise for The Unspoken Constitution

“This is a brilliant document - and a searing lampoon of the ridiculous state of our political arrangements. It exposes all the glaring faults and the silent assumptions that deform our system, preventing it from ever functioning in a way that we, the people, deserve. If you do not laugh, you will cry!” - Helena Kennedy QC, Member of the unreformed House of Lords.

“For centuries, the UK state simultaneously ran a despotic empire overseas and a liberal constitutional polity at home. Democratic Audit's spoof constitution brilliantly captures how the constitutional schizophrenia this induced in our governing elite continues to shape the fabric of modern British politics and to undermine the lives and liberty of every citizen" - Professor Patrick Dunleavy, London School of Economics.

“This brilliant document makes the formidable case that the British system of government is now an illegitimate and undemocratic shambles. Democratic Audit under Stuart Weir has long urged root and branch reform and a new written constitution. It is a case which Conservatives like me who instinctively disagree with Weir and Stuart Wilks-Heeg, his successor at the Audit, can no longer afford to ignore” - Peter Oborne, author of ‘The Triumph of the Political Class’ and Daily Mail columnist

“It is difficult not to read this brilliant exposé of the traditions of cant, deception and arrogance that serve as Britain's constitution without feeling admiration for the authors and a profound anger for the self-perpetuating political classes that continue to rule. As the freedoms said to be guaranteed by our unwritten constitution are suffocated in the night, this work eloquently shows that there is no more urgent business in Britain than the writing of a constitution to upgrade our democracy and bring us into line all with other free societies” - Henry Porter, novelist and columnist for The Observer.

“Democratic Audit's spoof constitution is very funny on the way we are governed until you realise with a shiver just how real it all is.  The Audit is well placed to inform us about the gross failings of our democracy; those of us who wish to improve and deepen it must find ways of doing that in the face of the major obstacles that this satirical document all too clearly identifies” - Hilary Wainwright, Editor of Red Pepper.

The Unspoken Constitution in the News and on the Web

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Stuart Wilks-Heeg, ‘The Unspoken Constitution’, Comment is Free (The Guardian), 12 October 2009.

Stuart Weir and Stuart Wilks-Heeg, ‘The Unspoken Constitution’, OurKingdom, 12 October.

James Grey, ‘The Unspoken Constitution’, Republic Blog, 12 October.

Timothy Garton Ash, ‘Back to the same old Ukania, with a muddle in place of a constitution’ The Guardian, 14 October 2009.

Vanessa Moore, ‘We the elite, will have secrecy as our watchword …’, LabourList, 15 October 2009.

Andrew Blick, ‘Government decides to keep its royal powers after all’, OurKingdom, 17 October 2009.

The Cornish Democrat, ‘The Unspoken Constitution and Cornwall’, 17 October.

Laurie Penny, ‘Can’t stop the blog: what the internet has done for ideas’, The Huffington Post, 20 October 2009.