Parliament: Waging War (Constitution Committee Report)

My Lords, I am grateful, as the whole House will be, to my noble friend Lord Holme of Cheltenham for introducing this debate on the report of the Select Committee of which he is the distinguished chairman. The noble Lord brings a wealth of constitutional expertise to the committee’s deliberations, and his very skilful and wise orchestration of our events is appreciated by all my committee colleagues. His consummately delivered opening speech bears testimony to his many qualities. The report, Waging War, deals with one of the most significant issues, as many noble Lords have said, of the past decade or more. The past 17 years, according to Ministry of Defence information, have seen the deployment of more than 16 engagements by British Armed Forces. Most of these deployments have been relatively minor excursions, but some, notably Iraq and Afghanistan, have been significant undertakings. Both continue to be major commitments. No one, including the Select Committee, argues that the Government should not take swift action in the case of an emergency that threatens the national security of the UK. It does not need the archaic and anachronistic doctrine of the royal prerogative to justify such rapid action. All nations have a prime duty to protect their citizens; that is beyond dispute. Much more debateable is whether the royal prerogative should continue to be deployed by Governments in deciding either to initiate or join in conflicts overseas. The contemporary context of military operations, as many noble Lords have said, differs from the past in two major respects: first, in respect of the nature of modern warfare, as the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Bramall, noted, and, secondly, in respect of modern liberal democracy, as many noble Lords have argued. As regards modern warfare, the report distinguishes between the wars of necessity and wars of choice. Iraq, and to a slightly lesser extent, perhaps, Afghanistan, are pre-eminent examples of the latter category. Such wars, as the report states, should not be embarked upon without parliamentary—effectively, the House of Commons—prior approval. Almost all liberal democracies have such a provision, and it is high time that a provision should be made for the United Kingdom to adopt such a constitutional protocol. It cannot be acceptable, as the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor asserted before the committee: "““The present arrangements, we believe, serve the country well. We would be unwise to change them””." That was after a long and excruciating rigmarole of obfuscatory, legislative discourse that begged many questions, and persuaded no one. It is an art form that the noble and learned Lord acquired and developed rapidly when he was the Minister responsible for the ill-fated Millennium Dome. It is a desperate rhetorical expedient that inevitably fails to carry conviction. Such an attempt at a rearguard action in defence of the exercise of the royal prerogative is no longer tenable, particularly in light of the developments in contemporary democracy. Iraq is the catalyst. As the situation worsens day by day, so public opinion both in the United States and in the United Kingdom finds the continuing allied intervention and occupation increasingly unacceptable. Both houses of the United States Congress have voted in favour of a specific withdrawal date for American troops and withholding future funds to finance operations beyond that date. The United States has the great advantage of a written constitution, providing for a fully delineated separation of powers which enables such legislative oversight and control of the Executive. By contrast, the UK’s position is far weaker. It may be as the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, said: that Congress’s powers have, de facto, been diluted. In fact, however, the symbolic act of Congress meant that there was a cathartic release in the United States which is not possible in this country. Therefore, no matter how truncated their powers may in effect become, Congress serves a useful role as an escape valve as well as constraining the presidency in its future actions. Precisely because of Iraq, I predict, as othernoble Lords have done, that provision for prior parliamentary approval for military deployments overseas—emergencies excepted, either by a new convention or statute—will come about in thenear future. We must renew our constitutional arrangements in the light of recent and ongoing experience. Popular opinion will countenance nothing less. If trust is to be restored between government and the electorate—Iraq is a major reason for the breakdown of trust—prior approval provision must be introduced. It will come about, as many other noble Lords have said, sooner rather than later; the portents are favourable. When Mr Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister, he will have to live up to his earlier expressed views in support of the proposal. As many noble Lords have said, Mr David Cameron has also stated his support for such provision. To be successful, appropriate renewal of our Government’s arrangements must be informed by prior democratic imagination. That faculty seems largely to have escaped commercial lawyers, to judge from the positions taken by both the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor and the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General before the committee. By contrast, how your Lordships continue to miss the wise constitutional perspective of the late Leader of the House, Lord Williams of Mostyn.Mr Gordon Brown and Mr David Cameron, as aspirants to the office of Prime Minister, really have no alternative, given the present state of public opinion, but to cultivate and give full rein to their democratic imaginations. This report will have helped to inform them.