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The only significant element in our current, unwritten constitution is the supremacy of Parliament.  As Lord Hailsham pointed out in an article in the Sunday Times in July 1970, this means that there is no protection from the will of Parliament, no balance to its powers.

We believe the principles of Separation and Subsidiarity should be enshrined in a written constitution, whether this be at the UK or EU level.

One key aspect that has been lost in our system of government is the principle of separation.  It used to be the case that each institution in our system, the Commons, Lords and Executive were completely independent.

We believe it is imperative that this separation is restored. This means populating each institution in entirely different ways. 

The Executive needs to be strong and directly accountable. The best way to achieve this is through direct competitive elections where ideas can be properly debated and candidates tested.  This is what the parties are good at and this is the only institution in which they should be involved.

The Commons needs to be truly representative, i.e. a true reflection of the makeup of the population.  As elections automatically exclude a large section of the population, these can never be truly representative.  That is why we believe that sortition (random selection) is the best way to populate the Commons, or any other representative body.

The Lords has traditionally been an independent, revising chamber that tries to eliminate the unintended negative consequences of legislation, and a defender of minority and civil rights.  We believe that direct election of candidates is not appropriate for this function and that the electorate should rather nominate a body that they would trust to defend a particular perspective, such as a single-issue pressure group, charity or religious organisation to appoint advocates of this perspective on their behalf.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level.  This is often portrayed as devolution of powers from the centre with those at the highest levels making the decisions about what can be devolved.  We believe this is entirely the wrong way around, and that the assumption should be that power resides with the neighbourhood unless delegated upwards.

Once real power has been devolved to the county or city level, there may be little or no need for the Westminster Parliament at all.  If countries such as Malta and Luxembourg can function as independent entities within the EU, why not our counties and major cities with similar and in some cases much larger populations?