2. The constitution

Britain is often said to have no constitution, or an unwritten constitution, but this is not strictly true. ‘The constitution: old and new’ describes Britain’s constitution as an accumulation of statutes, conventions, and laws, not one that is codified into a single book of rules. It remains problematic to argue over whether something is unconstitutional, particularly following the reforms of Tony Blair’s Labour government, the growing demand in Scotland and Wales for devolution of powers, the introduction of judges in maintaining a system of checks and balances, and recent developments which open up the question of whether parliamentary sovereignty is being replaced by ‘the will of the people’.