Make no mistake about the direction of democratic values in Britain – it is backsliding since the Conservative Party have been in power. This was especially so when Boris Johnson walked into 10 Downing Street. Since then, the backsliding has continued.

The United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group (UKCMG) was set up in 2020 as direct result of the alarming attack on the institutions that uphold civil society in a fully functioning democracy. It comprises experts and practitioners covering a range of areas of the UK constitution. Its principal purpose is to assess developments – actual and anticipated – in the UK constitution.

Areas of interest include – but are not confined to – government accountability, arrangements for the upholding of the rule of law and individual rights, the territorial governance of the UK, and how the key aspects of such issues can be distilled and communicated to the public.

Essentially, it is democracy that it is making commentary about, not just the constitution.

The text below is taken directly from a report last year that clearly demonstrates its concern about the current incumbents of Downing Street and what it is doing when it comes to Britain’s democracy.

It is with such a task in mind that the United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group produced its biannual Constitution in Review, a report that monitors developments and assesses them against a set of constitutional principles. The second edition, covering the second half of 2021, identified a series of problems, including:

 

• growing arbitrary power for the UK executive;

• failures within the executive to uphold standards and integrity, with self-regulation mechanisms proving ineffective;

• legislative plans to reduce the autonomy of the Electoral Commission;

• evidence of the misleading of the UK Parliament, including by the Prime Minister, and less than honest communications outside Parliament;

• excessive discretionary authority vested in ministers through the creation and deployment of delegated law-making power;

• attempts to restrict the right to protest;

• disregard for international law and treaty commitments;

• the possibility of reductions in the scope of the courts effectively to review the actions of the executive and the dilution of human rights protection; and

• government seeking to bring about substantial constitutional change for which it has neither sought nor obtained the degree of consensus it would ideally command.

 

Surprisingly, this report makes no mention of the government silencing its critics in ominous ways – just one of which is the Freedom of Information regulations. Another is the arrest of journalists.

These and other difficulties comprise a serious source of concern about democracy in the UK. They may presage a more serious deterioration. But regardless of the ultimate outcome, they already amount to a substantial and regrettable tendency.