Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The concept of Self-Regulation underpinned by statutory authority or supervision may seem like splitting hairs and it is. Unfortunately to preserve the freedom of the press on the one hand and to regulate it on the other, hairs have to be split. Choosing a Royal Charter as the means of doing it is a stroke of genius for the simple reason that under the British Unwritten Constitution the whole fabric of power is held together by a complex web of split hairs. This is because all power flows from the Monarch, since monarchic power is itself sovereign and absolute. The hair splitting occurs through the sovereign ceding control of the cash to parliament, one house of which is elected, allowing the country to call itself a democracy. The sovereign also agrees to sign into law measures passed by the majority in parliament.

The government remains the government of the sovereign, although by convention its members are drawn from parliament, mostly but not entirely, from the elected House of Commons. Each government minister carries in his portfolio a remarkable executive tool of absolute power. It is called the Royal Prerogative. This is because, as part of the balance of understanding within the nebulous constitution, the sovereign has ceded the operation of all power to the government, whilst still, in the final analysis retaining the exercise of it. Few realise how much of government is conducted outside the control of parliament. For example foreign policy is not subject to parliamentary approval, neither is the setting up of ministries or closing them down. Nor indeed is the setting up of Royal Charters.

Because Royal Charters are within the sovereign authority of the monarch, they are set up, by ministers, using the Royal Prerogative without parliamentary approval. The BBC functions under one and does so with robust independence as everybody acknowledges. From time to time ministers from both of the main parties have become agitated about what they assert is anti-government bias at the BBC, which has led them to meddle with its structure of governance making changes in form, if without much effect.

The anxiety of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties was that in the event of an ogre coming to power in the future, he or maybe she, could change the proposed Royal Charter regulating the newspapers, at the simple stroke of a pen and place the entire press under the edict of the government. Conversely if a weak government could sustain power only with the backing of the press barons, they may persuade a tottering prime minister to shore up his or her support by amending the Royal Charter to give them freedom to do as they please.

By enacting a small piece of legislation requiring amendments to newly granted Royal Charters to be approved by a two thirds majority of both houses of parliament, the possibility of such mischievous changes are significantly reduced, but most important, brought under the control of the legislature and away from the executive. The newspaper proprietors would be wise to take note. They retain all their independence within a set of rules protecting the public from abuse. This is a good deal. They should support it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Malcolm Blair Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.