constitutional changes after 1997

Question 1

what did new labour want to do ?

Answer 1

• to build on 1969 old labour for the extension to vote for 18 year olds
  -wanted more open democracy
  -They did this because they needed lib dem support to win the election

Question 2

how did tony blair become popular ?

Answer 2

-tories didnt want to reform the constititution
-wales, northern ireland and scotland were getting fed up that the policies were dictated by london e.g council tax

Question 3

House of lords reform ?

Answer 3

-Labour ended all but 92 members of the HOL heriditary peers
-No party had a dominant postion in the house of lords
-The prime minister can still nominate

Question 4

electoral reform in 97 ?

Answer 4

-they didnt need to make any changes because labour had a huge majority and a landslide win

Question 5

Human rights act?

Answer 5

-We adopted the european convention on human rights which means all future legislations had to be compatible with european law.
-Except article 5 due to the police wanting greater power to do with terroism

Question 6

Supreme court ?

Answer 6

-highest court of land of appeal cases
-used to be done in the HOL because of seperation of powers

Question 7

Devolution ?

Answer 7

• devolved bodies created after refurendum after 97-98
  -he did this so scotland wales and nothern ireland would favour labour party
  -West lothian question: scottish MP’s have a say on english matter but not visa versa
  -barnett formula caused tension: meant more money spent per head in devolved areas than england