Labour has released a new report calling on Britain to apologise for her empire, pay reparations to former colonies, and introduce a new constitution which virtually abolishes the monarchy and various other aspects of British heritage.
The report, authored by the party’s External Governance Officer, Seán Patrick Griffin, does not mince words, from the title — Remaking the British State — to its declaration that the party should “seek to use the [new] constitution as a tool to achieve the social transformation which they seek.”
For the avoidance of doubt, it spells out the goals of a new constitution in no uncertain terms: “Socialists should seek to reorder the British state and hardwire the constitution in favour of socialist objectives. This must be a central plank of the Labour Party’s vision to transform the UK.”
The country’s existing constitution, traditions, and history are given short shrift, with the former British Empire coming in for particular criticism.
“The history of the British Empire is one of subjugation of peoples, colonisation, land grabs, slavery, religious bigotry and racism,” the report proclaims — making no allowances for the good it did in defeating Nazi Germany, spearheading efforts to end the slave trade globally, and bring innovations such as the rule of law, trial by jury, and industrialisation to the wider world.
“In recognition of the past wrongdoings of the British state, the new constitution should make an unreserved apology to all of the countries of the world that the Empire invaded and negatively impacted,” it proposes.
“In addition, the British state should set up a reparations fund as part of the constitution, which offers financial assistance to communities across the world that can show loss and detriment as a result of the actions of the British state.”
The monarchy, too, would be virtually abolished if the report’s proposals were implemented, as although “the Monarch would remain as head of state, all of the trappings and add-ons of the monarchy should be abolished with immediate effect, including the Privy Council and the requirement to swear an oath to the Monarch to hold certain public offices.”
“In addition, all royal involvement in public affairs should be subject to a constitutional prohibition, with criminal sanction if contravened,” the report adds, and the royal honours conferred by the monarchy — knighthoods, membership of the Order of the British Empire, and so on — would all be scrapped in favour of “a new Civic Award that can be conferred by the UK Parliament”.
Other remnants of a traditional society would fare even worse, with the nobility abolished “in its entirety” across the country — and “a constitutional prohibition [placed] on any future creation of noble titles.”
Naturally the House of Lords would be eliminated, and replaced by a so-called Senate of the Nations and Regions, as part of a wider transformation of Britain from a united kingdom into a looser federation — although England would remain without a parliament, the only home nation to do so.
Parliamentary sovereignty would end in all but name, with the Blair-created Supreme Court of the United Kingdom given the power to strike down legislation incompatible with the new constitution.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, an ardent anti-Brexiteer who is nevertheless attempting to move the mood music of the party away from the overt leftism of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn — pushing for more use of the British flag and national colours in party branding, for example — has already attempted to distance himself from the report, dismissing it as a relic of the former leadership.
However, its foreword it signed “Seán Patrick Griffin… Leader of the Opposition’s Office, London, February 2020” and there is no indication that its author has lost his position as Labour’s External Governance Officer.
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