Baron Heseltine of Thenford . 17-3-17
HOUSE OF LORDS.
Westminster.
My Lord,
I was appalled by the comments you made following being released from your duties as a government advisor .
On ( Budget Day ) when speaking to the media, you revealed a staggering misunderstanding of our constitution, and if yours is a commonly held view in the upper chamber, it goes quite someway towards explaining why our governmental system has declined to its present state of ridicule .
In each interview ( I saw two ) you declared that you considered it your duty to defend : the sovereignty of Parliament - pardon, should that have been : the Nation ?
At a Referendum : the people speak and all power is vested in the People. and government can receive no more authoritative a directive, as it transcends both houses .
Parliament is not Sovereign, the Sovereign is Sovereign - - Parliament is transient , the Monarchy permanent – hence the declaration : The King is dead – Long Live the King !
ALL POWER of governance is held by the Crown under contract to the People - - The People alone entrust that power to the Monarch - - who accepts it via the Coronation Oath, and then calls a parliament to act as an administration in : Her or His Name.
Government ignorance of our evolved Constitution was evident in our only previous major Referendum in 1975 , when a compromised Harold Wilson was told by the world power brokers that : we were not leaving the EEC and that he should inform the nation accordingly, which he did through James Callaghan as I recall – it was a FIX, but it was kept from the electorate .
Sadly, our current Westminster Whitehall incumbents, the iphone generation, find our Constitutional concept too subtle, and for decades the Commons have found it convenient to allow the electorate to believe ( as you do ) that it is sovereign, thus allowing it to by-pass the Head of State, who in turn does not protest.
Yours respectfully, Peter J McHugh
