It's often said that Britain relies on a "good chaps theory of government": that the British constitution only works if operated by "good chaps", who choose to obey the rules.

I think that's wrong. Here's why.

My latest for @prospect_uk [Excerpts follow] prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/has-t…
"Far from trusting politicians to be “good chaps,” British politics was once on a hair-trigger for bad or unconstitutional behaviour". As Lord Acton put it in 1887, “Great men are almost always bad men”. And the presumption of wrongdoing should “increase as the power increases”.
"The problem today is not that leaders have ceased to be “good chaps,” but that we no longer seem to care when they behave badly". We have lost our sense that "bad chaps" matter: and that it is our responsibility to police their conduct.
"The problem is less one of “constitutions” than of “constitutionalism”: a reluctance to uphold constitutional norms and punish those who break them". So long as “bad chaps” win elections, too many seem happy to indulge them.
"Bad chaps are a feature, not a bug, of constitutional govt; & the best preservative is a public that is intolerant of abuses of power. It was a lesson that was understood by previous generations, steeped in the dangers of “bad kings” & tyrants. It is one we'd be wise to relearn"
The full article is available here. And fantastically, all @prospect_uk articles are free to access until 13 August! prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/has-t…

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More from @redhistorian

2 Aug
This article, on the repeal of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, raises a question that needs more public discussion: who wields the historic powers of the Crown once the monarchy is no longer politically active? Should there be *any* limit on their use by a prime minister? THREAD
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"The politics of support have trumped the politics of power to such an extent that the Conservative Party has broken with almost everything it might once have seemed to be its function to defend". Richard Vinen on "The Conservative Nation" since 1974. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…
Lots to think about in this essay. How did the "politics of support" go from being a vehicle for "the politics of power" to subsuming it altogether? A leadership class drawn from PR/the media, with very short careers & little prior experience of govt, must be important here.
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Now that the sanction against lying has collapsed, punishing the allegation simply protects the offender.
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"No prime minister of modern times has been so deeply rooted in the Establishment. None has been so routinely tipped for greatness. And yet few retain such an enduring air of mystery".

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"As for Mr Gladstone, he was pallid to the lips. To him it must have been as the desecration of the Ark of the Covenant to Moses of old."
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