Constitutional Reform - Brown didn't go far enough

11.18.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 6th Jul 2007

Earlier this week Gordon Brown outlined to the House of Commons his thoughts on the constitution and its reform. Much of what he said was good and I looked forward to the reforms taking place, as with many of the reforms Labour has introduced since 1997 they simply do not go far enough.

He could and should have seized the opportunity to have a fully written (and codified) Constitution and Bill of Rights - with literally everything up for grabs. A full review could have dealt with issues thrown up by devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's - most notable the issue of Scottish MPs voting on laws that do not cover Scotland.

There was indication of reviewing how our democracy works. There was have been suggesting of weekend voting and the reduction in the voting age to 16 (but frankly the Government is all over the place when it comes to age rates - it is now suggesting lower the age of voting to 16 whilst at the same time talking about raising the age of buying cigarettes to 18 and increasing the age of school leaving!). There is a review of electoral systems is to be published by the end of the year - this will not be the first review since Labour came to power and they ignored the last one, it remains to be seen if Brown actually takes any notice of this review.

He unveiled proposals to reduce the powers of the Prime Minister and increase the power of Parliament. Powers being handed over either to the Cabinet or direct to Parliament are:

· Declare war.

· Request dissolution of parliament.

· Recall parliament.

· Ratify treaties without decision by parliament.

· Make top public appointments without scrutiny.

· Restrict parliamentary oversight of intelligence services.

· Choose bishops.

· Help appoint judges.

· Direct prosecutors in particular criminal cases.

· Set rules governing the civil service.

· Set rules for entitlements to passports and pardons.

It remains to be seen how some of these will work, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. A bigger step involving Bishops could have been for the Church appointing them and a proper separation of Church and State. There have been several calls, including one from Cardinal O'Brien this week for the Act of Settlement to be repealed to stop legal discrimination in a number of areas against Catholics.

The Green Paper threatens to launch a national debate on British values. Brown does seem obsessed with 'Britishness' I don't know about you but I would find it very difficult to define 'Britishness'.

Then, for the first time, Ming Campbell won the session. The Liberal Democrat leader has been the subject of much grumbling from his party - disloyalty has always been the Lib Dems' secret weapon - and he needed a good performance. He gave it.

He too wanted to know if there was going to be any real change. Would Mr Brown get British troops out of Iraq, look into BAE corruption, and end "the one-sided extradition treaty with the United States?"

The prime minister climbed back into his national unity suit - easy, since he and Ming are chummy. "My door is always open to you," he said graciously.

The courtesy was not reciprocated. "The prime minister's door seems more like a trap door to me," Ming snapped back. Now, that may not seem a specially dazzling wisecrack, but in parliamentary terms - and compared to Ming's earlier, faltering ripostes - it was as if Oscar himself had risen from the grave, sauntering, green carnation aloft, into the Cafe Royal with a gag that would ring down the ages. MPs were, quite literally, rolling around on the benches