Poor Nick Clegg keeps trying to change the constitution and keeps being balked (the Alternative Vote, Lords reform). At last, he believes, he will be able to fulfil his ambition to force the first-born child, of either sex, to ascend to the throne, and to be able to marry a Roman Catholic (though not, oddly, to be a Roman Catholic if she/he does actually become queen/king). Perhaps he is carried away by being married to the lovely, fascinating, Catholic Miriam, and is horrified that members of the royal family are deprived of such joys. This speaks well for his ardour. But surely the best constitutional changes of the past 350 years have been those which increased the power of Parliament at the expense of the executive. Mr Clegg wants his Bill, which involves amending eight separate Acts of Parliament, to be rushed through in a single day. Hot-headed with love for Miriam, like Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn, he is careless of our liberties.
Lord Strathclyde has resigned as Leader of the Lords. He is only 52, still 18 years younger than the average age of his party in his House, but is the longest-serving member of the entire Conservative front bench, having sat on it since 1988. He would not boast about it — or even admit it — but it is probably thanks to him that Mr Clegg’s dreams of Lords reform withered. He should be thanked, rather as John Howard, in Australia, should be thanked for stalling the move to make his country a republic. It is not that the existing system is so wonderful, but that supporters of reform are so self-righteous that they never bother to think through plans that could command consent. When history is studied, it will also show Strathclyde counselled David Cameron against forming a coalition in 2010.
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