Martin Kettle is right to suggest that what he characterises as “the Burnham problem” is a serious one, but he doesn’t go far enough in his prescriptions (Andy Burnham is a prime Labour leader candidate, but also a mayor. That’s a problem, 30 May). If, as the historian Peter Hennessy has recently argued, the “good chap” model of government has been fatally undermined by the current occupant of No 10, we need a far more thorough reform of our institutions and constitution, including at a minimum the replacement of first past the post with proportional voting, with the process legitimised by citizens’ assemblies feeding into a UK-wide constitutional convention.
To that I’d add an elected upper house (possibly along Germany’s Bundesrat model mentioned by Kettle), the Human Rights Act and Nolan principles to be written into the constitution, and abolition of the monarchy and the vestigial monarchical powers exercised by the executive (though now is not perhaps the best time to be making that particular argument).
The sine qua non for all this, however, is voting reform – once our two main parties are released from the thrall of a system that demands the pretence of ideological conformity, genuine political disagreement will be thrust into the open, where it properly belongs, and the promise of devolution can more fully be realised. The renewal of our democracy demands nothing less.
Adam Newey
London
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
