Pienaar's view: Brown's constitution

By John Pienaar
BBC Radio 5 live chief political correspondent

What do Mr Brown's reform plans add up to?

Exactly what does Gordon Brown stand for?

To some - not all of them Conservatives or bitter Blairites - that question has yet to be resolved.

Talk of a written constitution and a Bill of Rights - and not just rights but duties - surely counts as a big idea.

How big?

Well, that's another question still to be resolved.

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For sure, a Bill of Rights and Duties would be a first in British history. But sceptics are already wondering what it all adds up to.

Take examples of new rights and freedoms in Mr Brown's big speech: the gas man and the health inspector, for example, may lose their right to enter your home.

There'll be an overhaul of the right to information.

Historic?

Good news for the freedom of information campaign, and those who push for the right to know.

But how historic is all that?

And constitutional experts are arguing that our rights and responsibilities - whether they're in a bill or not - will always depend on a host of separate laws, all of them enforced individually by the courts.

Rather like now.

Still, let's see how it all comes out.

Then there's the enhanced role for Parliament, keeping ministers in check. Reformers will like the idea.

But it is, arguably, all but politically impossible already for a British government to go to war without Parliamentary support.

And international treaties are mostly discussed in Parliament late at night with a handful of MPs in the chamber.

Appointments

Except for EU treaties. They're all approved by Parliament already.

As for the power to scrutinise big public appointments. The Ministry of Justice tells me it's really looking at how well the existing system of judicial appointments works.

There'll be no US-style confirmation hearings.

And the idea of confirmation hearings for other big public appointments? That idea - floated by Mr Brown during his leadership campaign - isn't on the agenda now.

Watch out for more accusations of cronyism, fair or not.

It's too early, and too easy, to dismiss this big idea.

But maybe it's too early to applaud it unreservedly too.