Parliament began as a bargain about money: no taxation without consent. That history explains why the monarch’s powers — including dissolution — are now formal and limited. Our problem isn’t the Crown; it’s weak front-end checks on a dominant Commons. Put consent back up-front: publish-or-pause, Gate-0 reviews, and an OBR lock.
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), lens grinder and outcast of Amsterdam, became one of the most radical voices of the seventeenth century. His call for freedom of thought, secular politics, and democracy as the most “natural” form of government resonates today in Western constitutions.