Adopting a political constitutionalist view of the British constitution, this book critically explores the history of legal and political thought on parliamentary sovereignty in the UK. It argues that EU membership strongly unsettled the historical precedents underpinning UK parliamentary sovereignty. Successive governments adopted practices which, although preserving fundamental legal rules, were at odds with past precedents. The author uses three key EU case studies – the financial transactions tax, freedom of movement of persons, and the working time directive – to illustrate that since 1973 the UK incorporated EU institutions which unsettled those precedents. The book further shows that the parliament’s place since the referendum on Brexit in June 2016 and the scrutinising of the terms of the withdrawal agreement constitute an enhanced, new constitutional resettlement, and a realignment of parliament with the historical precedent of consent and its sovereignty.

In this book the former head of Mrs Thatcher's policy unit looks at the state of the British Constitution at a crucial time in its history, arguing that recent years have seen an increased willingness to monitor itself on the part of the Establishment, but that more audacious reforms are needed to restore full confidence in Parliament, government and the legal system.

A maverick by nature and a colossus in stature, Ben Greene was a gentle giant who stood six feet eight inches tall and was part of the illustrious Greene clan that included the novelist Graham Greene, Hugh Greene, Director-General of the BBC 1960-1969, and Raymond Greene, Everest mountaineer and doctor. With an abiding interest in constitutional matters and a smouldering resentment following his questionable internment by the British government under the draconian 18b internment regulations during World War 2, he worked diligently on the subject for the rest of his life, but unfortunately died before the book he was planning was finished. This booklet comprising five essays by Greene, which first appeared in Candour between 1956 and 1977, with two of them re-published under the title 'The Party System and the Corruption of Parliament' in magazine format in 1989, is now made available once again. The second edition contains an introduction by his daughter, Leslie.