Appendix 1: Winning entries in the Committee's
competition to find a preamble for a written constitution for
the UK
Winner in the Open category: Richard Elliott
United, we stand in celebration of the diverse voices
that make up the great chorus of our nation. Confident in our
individuality, and steadfast in our shared values and common purpose,
we—the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland—have come together in the spirit of self-determination
in order to establish the principles of our law and governance.
By this act, we create for ourselves a sovereign
state, animated by many spirits, accountable to all. Conscious
of the responsibility that we bear to future generations—and
of their role in defending and regenerating this Constitution—we
lay down maxims crafted to promote civic harmony, mutual tolerance,
universal wellbeing, and social and political freedom.
We embody these ideas in democratic government, and
enshrine them in a system of law. And we empower each citizen
to reform this design, by democratic process and political debate.
By popular mandate, we establish this Constitution:
— To
recognise every citizen as an equal partner in government—at
a local, regional, and national level.
— To
affirm that each citizen is entitled to fair and equitable treatment
under the law.
— To
establish the principle of equality of opportunity for all citizens.
— To
eradicate poverty and want throughout the nation.
— To
protect and cultivate community identities within the four great
countries of the union: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern
Ireland.
— To
preserve our common environment, and to hold it in trust for future
generations.
— To
safeguard freedom of thought, conscience, and assembly; and to
facilitate peaceable dissent.
— And
to protect these fundamental rights against the encroachment of
tyranny and the abdication of reason.
Through this undertaking, we remind one another of
the benefits and duties of citizenship enshrined in membership
of the United Kingdom, challenging ourselves to enact these principles
throughout society.
Let our example stand as an inspiration to the peoples
of the world, and to their rulers and their governments.
Let our principles animate our dedication to peace
and justice in international affairs.
And let our united resolve grow ever-stronger under
the enlightened auspices of this Constitution.
Joint winners in the under-18 category: Harrison
Engler and Jake Kennedy
Entry by Harrison Engler:
We, the citizens of the sovereign state of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, henceforth hold
this Constitution to be the written embodiment of the previously
un-codified Constitution, made up of ancient common law, ordinary
statutes, conventions and traditions.
For reasons to be explained, we now feel it necessary
to entrench and codify our constitutional principles and protections,
so they are amended only by the special constitutional process
afforded to higher law, which will hereby be made judiciable by
the state.
The constitution shall determine the nature of elections
to a representative House of Commons and the makeup of the House
of Lords, as well as the practice by which constitutional sovereignty
can be exercised through the Supreme Court in order to challenge
authority and protect the citizens of this liberal, free democracy.
The Constitution beneath will confirm the basic principle
of the rule of law, strengthen the legitimate rights of the people
represented by an effective Parliament and strongly defined devolved
institutions.
The constitution will limit the extent to which citizens'
rights are threatened by other citizens or by Parliament's power,
which is limited by this Constitution, and subject to the Supreme
Court's judicial interpretations, in order to protect the human
rights laid out within this document, which shall have superior
authority over all other priorities of state- the people's parliament
must aim to protect individual freedoms and privileges, as far
as possible without threatening the collective and individual
rights of citizens.
Furthermore, the constitution shall lay out the functions,
limits of, and relationship between, different state bodies defined
within, including the sovereign, judiciary, government and the
bodies associated, and finally, our representative parliament,
which shall continue to function and be fully committed to the
advancement of the people of this nation, who make up the aforementioned
parliament, in all forms.
The words above define the fundamental values and
principles of the citizens for whom this charter is written and
shall be enshrined within this document, and given authority through
royal assent, and the necessary super-majorities of Parliament
and citizens, through a legally binding plebiscite.
Entry by Jake Kennedy:
We the citizens of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, hereby declare this document
legally binding, which outlines the rights of us citizens, and
the power of government.
This document will protect and enshrine in law the
following principles, key to our modern democratic nation:
1. A system of checks and balances, through a system
of separation of powers between the various branches of government,
whereby each branch is accountable to the others, but also to
the citizens through the election process, which would grant suffrage
to all over 18, all with the goal of protecting the citizens from
tyranny.
2. The protection of the natural rights of any and
all citizens, without discrimination.
3. That each and every citizen is entitled to protection
from harm, provided by the state, and where the state fails, a
due process of law to resolve it.
4. To ensure this, that the principle of the rule
of law is upheld, in order to give fair protection to all citizens,
without discrimination.
5. The establishment of the three branches of government
in a way that benefits the citizens. The executive and legislature
being set up in respect of one another in their sharing of powers,
and that the judiciary is wholly independent so as to check the
other branches of government effectively.
6. The principle of devolution and the continued
existence of the devolved bodies that currently exist within the
United Kingdom, in Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Greater
London.
With these key principles upheld and enshrined, the
Constitution that follows will achieve the goal of upholding our
modern democratic nation's key values, and ensuring that society
will continue to flourish, and all citizens without discrimination
have the ability to do so also.
As such we the citizens of the United Kingdom do
declare that the following document and any future amendments
will form the constitution that will govern our nation and us
the citizens.
| 
