British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced his first major policy: constitutional reform. This will include a significant transfer of power from the executive to the legislature (including the power to declare war, dissolve Parliament, and appoint judges and other officials), removing the Attorney-General from day-to-day prosecution decisions, exploring the need for a codified constitution and a Bill of Rights (s'funny - I thought the UK already had one), and lowering the voting age to 16. There's a suggestion that many of the longer-term decisions (such as codification) would be explored by citizen's juries. Notably absent from the list is a strong commitment to electoral reform and a shift to a fair voting system - something which now enjoys solid majority support after the patent unfairness of recent elections (and the abuses the resulting government has inflicted). Will the UK really have to wait for a hung Parliament to move its electoral system into the 20th century?
Disappointment aside, these moves are very definitely a welcome and positive step. It is simply incredible in this day and age that a supposedly democratic state would perform so many of its core functions through the "royal prerogative". Democratic states derive their legitimacy from the people, and their governance functions should reflect that, rather than pre-Enlightenment conceptions of Divine Right.
