'the Uk Constitution Is No Longer Fit for Purpose

‘The UK constitution is no longer fit for purpose’. Discuss.

A constitution is a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed. The UK constitution is one of the oldest constitutions in the world and due to its uncodified nature, it has many different parts to it, both written and unwritten; making it complex and flexible. As time has moved on, and other nations have changed their constitutions, there is debate on both sides of the argument: Is the UK constitution fit for purpose?

The UK constitution has been criticised, notably in recent years about a number of different issues. Some people think that the UK constitution doesn’t comply with the rules of modern world of politics. Many of the UK constitutions parts are made up of conventions, which are not embodied by law and aren’t binding. Other countries like the United States have modern, clearly set guidelines in their constitutions, along with many other nations (e.g. France, Germany). This makes comparison easier and it can also create more stable government, as the constitution lies sovereign. The UK is the only country to have a constitution split up into so many different parts, both unwritten and written.

In the United Kingdom, the constitution is uncodified, meaning that it is not written down in one place or in fact written down at all. Some areas of our constitution, such as the Human Rights Act are written down but other parts are not written and exist in the form of precedence, i.e. that we've had the rules for a long time, haven't written them down but continue to use them (conventions). This uncodified constitution makes the UK constitution open to interpretation unlike a codified constitution such as in the USA where everything is written down in a document and easily defined but not easily flexible. A key argument against the UK constitution is that due to it being uncodified, it can wield an...