REMEMBER THAT CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT FOREBODE WELL

REMEMBER THAT CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT FOREBODE WELL

This Remembrance Sunday brings an urgent call to review history, the principle purpose of a constitution and a call to action to review possible changes in your local constitutions - as highlighted below - as to what those changes may 'lawfully' enable.

'Constitutions can only be maintained by an active mass of the common people strictly monitoring, maintaining and protectively enforcing their constitution, the populace needing always to be educated to the fact that governments (i.e. the executive, the politicians and the judiciary) at all times and in all places trend towards despotism.'

https://www.democracydefined.org/5constitution.htm

Firstly, I’d like to thank you all for your tremendous support in building this petition-objection to date. It has been heartening to see multiple notifications where it has been actively shared and boosted and watched the numbers rise organically as a result. 

Whilst it may currently look small by ‘petition standards’, I consider it a large group of highly aware individuals who have readily picked up on the importance of changes to our fundamental constitutional rights and acted with the urgency this state of affairs warrants. Please continue this positive process through sharing understandings and action points below.

Remember that the Nazi regime never broke the law – they broke their constitution using the law * – highlighting the futility of focusing on law alone to maintain democracy, rather than maintaining a fully functioning democracy through its interconnected constitutional parts, ensuring all its checks and balances are in place.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933

The Constitution is ‘the rule book’ which structurally sits on top, binding all government members and proceedings  beneath it, according to its principles, whilst Trial by Jury is the ultimate point at which the people it purports to protect either accept or reject those laws placed on them, as a means of their own self-governance.

Trial by Jury is not a separate principle but a fundamental part of a democratic constitution which determines whether it truly serves its people or not. Without these fully operational checks and balances, how can you be sure that a constitution actually maintains democracy and not some other form of governmental control?   

See this in practice: Check your Local Council Constitutional Changes

Having grown to understand the principles above, I’ve noted with apprehension that my own local Waverley Borough Councilors have participated in meetings to amalgamate and update their constitution with that of Guildford Borough Council, in forming a unitary council in Surrey. Whilst a local council constitution may have differences from that of central government, the principles at stake remain the same.

Because the foundational knowledge of how a true democracy should operate has been airbrushed out of general understanding, even well-meaning Council members have participated in unconstitutional proceedings under the belief that this is valid under The Local Government Act 2000 and the Localism Act 2011; proceedings being somehow democratic and not a pit-fall waiting to be abused – as the following audit results show.

Comparisons between the Waverley Borough Council Constitution (September 2026) against the prior May 2026 text and orthodox local government standards.

1. Movement of Power from Councillors to Officers, Officers to CEO

The September 2026 revision executes a marked centralisation of authority into the office of the Joint Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service), while reducing the checks historically exercised by the Monitoring Officer and the wider Council chamber.

- The Chief Executive is granted sweeping new delegated authority "to approve the transfer of any function from Guildford Borough Council to Waverley Borough Council and to approve all joint appointments of staff within existing budgets". This new delegation allows major structural reorganisations to proceed as administrative decisions without open debate by Full Council.

- Reassignment of Democratic Meeting Control. In September 2026, operational powers to convene or cancel meetings of Full Council, the Executive, and Committees, and to approve the timetable of meetings, were removed from the Monitoring Officer and vested directly in the Joint Chief Executive, centralising control over the assembly of the political machinery within the chief executive officer's remit.

- Officer Discretion over Emergency Non-Executive Decisions:  Rule 5.7 purports to authorise the Joint Chief Executive to take urgent Non-Executive decisions after consulting solely with the Executive Leader, Deputy Leader, and an Executive Portfolio Holder. Because executive politicians possess no legal vires over regulatory non-executive functions (e.g., planning, licensing, elections), this creates an administrative mechanism that bypasses regulatory committees in favor of executive officer action.

2. Removal and Circumvention of Democratic Safeguards

The revised framework introduces structural mechanisms that reduce public transparency, circumscribe backbench challenge, and obscure statutory responsibility.

- Institutionalising Private Executive Working Groups: The Executive Working Group Protocol establishes an administrative apparatus that avoids statutory open-government rules

 - Secrecy by Default: Working groups meet strictly in private without the public or press 

 - Blanket Presumption of Exemption: Proceedings, discussions, and reports are treated as confidential/exempt and are not published (Rule 7.3).

 - Throttling Overview & Scrutiny: Statutory Overview and Scrutiny Committees do not have automatic inspection rights over working group documents; their access is subjected to a discretionary gateway managed by the Monitoring Officer (Rule 7.4).

 - Absence of Political Proportionality: Working groups are not required to be politically balanced, allowing the Executive to form single-party advisory panels to settle policy prior to formal Executive tabling (Rule 4.4).

 - The Absolute Urgency Bypass :
Where the Mayor and Monitoring Officer certify an Executive decision as "urgent", the decision takes effect immediately upon publication, entirely extinguishing the 5-day call-in window and pre-empting Scrutiny intervention.


3. Changes in Planning Procedures
While these remain textually consistent between drafts, the operational procedure rules in Part 4.2 introduce major restrictions on elected member participation, facilitating a default ‘yes’ to planning procedures:

 - Disenfranchisement of Ward Councillors on Planning Committee: Where a member of the Planning Committee represents the ward in which a planning application is situated, they are categorically barred from participating in the debate and vote. They are required to step down from the committee bench, sit at the rear of the chamber, and are restricted to addressing the committee as an ordinary speaker for up to four minutes.
This goes beyond statutory standards on bias/predetermination (Section 25 Localism Act 2011) and effectively deprives ward residents of a voting representative on the committee.

 - Procedural Presumption Toward Officer Recommendations: Rule 2.15 explicitly directs the Chair that if no member motion comes forward, the Chair should move a motion "ideally in line with the officers' recommendation." When members seek to propose a motion contrary to the officer recommendation, Rule 2.14 mandates that they must formulate valid planning reasons on the spot while officers provide immediate critiques on those reasons.
 
Action points – what can we do?

1 – Share
Copy the image posted in this update and share again with your associates:

 - Why Changing the Constitution does not Forebode Well
 - Why Trial by Jury is a Fundamental part of our Democratic Constitution  - yet is being dismantled
 - How Constitutional Changes in Local Council allow Immense CEO Powers to by-pass Democratic Safeguards & Issue Unopposed Emergency Proceedings

Learn more & Act Now:

 https://www.change.org/p/urgent-reject-the-courts-and-tribunals-bill-restore-trial-by-jury-in-all-courts/u/355858

2 – Learn and share the fundamental principles needed for a truly democratic system to function, which thereby preserve your rights:

‘Ignore the Constitution at your Peril’ – Calvin Perrins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pLPiEaUh6Y

Common Law Constitution (which Calvin refers to in the video above) https://www.CommonLawConstitution.org

"Only as long as juries of ordinary citizens have the final say, government remains the servant, not the master, of the people."
https://www.democracydefined.org/5constitution.htm

3 – Hold government officials accountable by following the National Residents for Civic Accountability practical action points:

https://ntkp.substack.com/p/national-residents-for-civic-accountability-4ed