Comment: The Good Chap Theory of Government and Johnson

Devastating analysis from the constitutional expert Peter Hennessy on Johnson’s refusal to resign after being fined for attending a Downing Street party. 

Lord Hennessy’s analysis is that the convention of Individual Ministerial responsibility has been broken by the PM as he misinformed parliament about knowledge of parties attended during lockdown. 

Important analysis to put into essays

He has previously talked about the ‘good chap theory of government’. 

Whereas every other Western democracy has codified its system of government, Britain’s constitution is a mish-mash of laws and conventions, customs and courtesies. Britain sees no need for the legalistic writing down its constitution in one place. Instead it relies on the notion that its politicians know where the unwritten lines of the constitution lie, and do not cross them. 

“The British constitution is a state of mind,” says Peter Hennessy, a historian who calls this the “good chap” theory of government. “It requires a sense of restraint all round to make it work.” Yet amid Britain’s current crisis, such restraint has been lacking.

As he put it in 2019, “We have long assumed that those who rise to high office will be ‘good chaps,’” who understand the rules and choose to observe them. That has left us vulnerable to those who are not “good chaps,” but are willing to smash those rules for their own advantage.

Want to know more? 

This article is a brilliant piece written by Peter Hennessy on his theory and why Johnson has broken it. 

And this extended discussion explores the idea further