If you read our Newsroom blog today, you probably saw campus news editor Andrew Ramonas’s post on Jack Straw, the United Kingdom Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary. Straw is speaking at GW’s Law School, probably right at this moment, and is rumored to make a statement about the need for the United Kingdom to have a constitution.

Straw has been talking about the prospect of the U.K. creating a written constitution (they function under common law, so their “constitution” is currently spread through documents dating back to the Magna Carta in 1215). And Andrew mentioned the “buzz” this has been creating in London.

In fact, I got an e-mail from Andrew yesterday asking me to keep my eye on the story for The Hatchet. My response: Why?

Though from an American prospective creating a constitution for a country may seem like something of high importance, here in London few seem to care about it very much (or at least that is my take on the subject).

This lack of buzz might have something to do with Straw’s latest quote on the subject – that the process will probably take 10-20 years.

Moreover, many Brits originally thought that this would simply turn into a pro-Brown government motto. And so in a typical British manner, the Times of London sponsored a British motto contest when the story first broke in November.

The winner? “No motto please, we’re British.”