Why base it on the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973?
This Bill is based on the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 - that lost masterpiece.
Violence crescendoing in Bloody Sunday, swept the 1920 settlement of Ireland away.. Direct Rule was intended to last a year under the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972.
Stormont had had the power to determine if the north should join the south. With Direct Rule that could not stand - or a Secretary of State or Governor could move the border with a stroke of the pen.
The new constitutional drive from Westminster was built on two foundations:
- popular sovereignty
- a constitution agreed consensually across the two communities
Popular sovereignty arrived: the Northern Ireland (Border Poll) Order 1973. It was won 98.9% to 1.1% on a turnout of 58.7% with mass nationalist abstention.
The second was achieved by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act. An assembly was elected by PR. It had a 2/3 majority for power sharing. After six months of debate, including talks with the Republic at Sunningdale, a new Executive came to power on 1st January 1974.
But a snap UK general election was called for the 28th February. Violence had got worse and an anti-power sharing coalition narrowly won the election 51% to 49% but FPTP delivered them 11 of 12 sets. The winners immediately conspired with trade unionists and loyalist paramilitaries; leading to an armed general strike in May. The failure of the British Army to crush the barricades split the Unionists and the Executive fell.
The Executive was prorogued by automatic application of statute, for 4 months going on 21 years.
The Acts importance is that the Good Friday process was just Sunningdale for slow learners.
1973 is constitutionally the year zero for three reasons:
- it established constitutional referenda as the primary mechanism for popular consent - popular votes on constitutional issues
- it transferred sovereignty from the parliament at Stormont to the people of NI
- it set the pattern of constitutional change across the UK - transformation at the edge, no change at the centre
The UK took to referendums with gusto: 3 across the UK (1975, 2011 and 2016), 3 in Scotland (1979, 1997 and 2014), 3 in Wales (1979, 1997 and 2011) and NI again in 1998.
The second pillar is, popular sovereignty, is taken for granted everywhere except among the political class at Westminster.
The political collapse of the UK is driven by the third. Westminster, with an out of control executive, consistently refusing reform and clinging onto parliamentary sovereignty.