Model USA

Opinion polls like the Pew Global Attitudes survey continue to testify to widespread anti-American feeling among British voters. Brown himself has hinted that he will pursue a less slavishly pro-American foreign policy than his predecessor, Tony Blair. Yet the “new British constitutional settlement” Brown promised last week owes an unmistakable debt to the American system.

“For centuries,” declared Brown, the prime minister and the executive branch “have exercised authority in the name of the monarchy without the people and their elected representatives being consulted.” His aim, by contrast, is to “entrust more power to parliament and the British people.” Nota bene: from royal authority to “We, the people.”

Brown offered to delegate the power to declare war to the House of Commons, albeit on the basis of a resolution rather than a statute. Again, this imitates the US, where (under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution) Congress alone has the power to declare war.

There is to be a British national security council. The American model for this dates to 1947.

The House of Lords is almost certainly to become an elected body. Hey, Gordon, how about renaming it “the Senate”? Above all, Brown proposes to “codify — both the duties and rights of citizens and the balance of power between government, parliament and the people.”

In concluding his statement, he explicitly raised the possibility of a Bill of Rights and a written constitution.

Wow. It’s taken more than 200 years, but a British prime minister has accepted that Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and Washington were right.

Now, I agree that there are some superficially plausible arguments for an Americanisation of the British system of government. Under Brown’s predecessor, there is no doubt that the power of the executive relative to Parliament grew intolerably and was systematically abused by the prime minister and his cronies. However, there are more compelling arguments against the creation of a United States of Britain.

The most important of these is that, whatever it says on paper,...