[A-List] UK state: disintegration

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Inquiry into Blair war powers

Anne Perkins, political correspondent
Wednesday February 12, 2003
The Guardian

MPs are to investigate Tony Blair's power to declare war and peace and
deploy British troops, it will be announced today. The move is a response to
the prime minister's refusal to guarantee a debate and vote before
committing Britain to war with Iraq.

When Mr Blair appeared before MPs on the joint liaison committee last month,
Tony Wright - the chairman of the public administration committee, which is
to carry out the inquiry - pointed out that George Bush had to get the
permission of congress before going to war. "Why do we have endless debates
about whether to kill foxes, but no debate on whether to kill people?" he
asked. Mr Blair told him he saw "no reason" to change.

The prime minister's war-making powers come from the royal prerogative, an
arcane authority which allows government to bypass parliament on many major
issues. In theory the Queen is the source of prerogative power, but the
doctrine has long been a constitutional figleaf disguising the actual
exercise of the powers by the prime minister.

The power of patronage - which ranges from the creation of life peers, the
appointment of the chair of the BBC governors and the award of honours to
senior civil servants to individual ministers' rights to appoint thousands
of members of quangos - will also be examined by the committee.

The committee hopes to get a detailed description of the workings of the
departmental honours committees which submit names to the prime minister.
"Patronage is the lubricant of the whole system," reflected one committee
member. "We need to range widely over the whole field. And we need to look
not just at who gets the honours, but how they can be taken away too."

Reformers have suggested that MPs could be given the right to confirm
important public appointments, while fixed-term parliaments would eliminate
the power of the prime minister to decide the timing of general elections.