David Simpson
Jul 24, 2017 · 1 min read

It’s ironic, given the seeds of the American Revolution, that the time may have come for you to look across the pond to the Mother of All Parliaments (she says). We have no written constitution (often seen as a weakness, but actually a strength, since it bends and flows and evolves over time, and is not held in the straitjacket of “The Constitution” — we have the Queen instead). We have a genuinely independent judiciary — no politician appoints our judges. Parliament is sovereign, but our courts can find its laws unjust, or illogical, or whatever, and force Parliament to go back and amend the law. We have an independent Electoral Commission, which decides our parliamentary constituency boundaries and rules on whether politicians, parties or voters have broken the law. We have an unelected upper house, which could be a good thing if its members were not mostly political appointees (say instead selected by lot). And although a lot of us have complained over the years about the inequities of first past the post (as opposed to some form of proportional representation) it is intriguing how unsuccessful it has been since 2010 in delivering “strong government” which is supposedly its great advantage. Right now, the opposition and minority parties (who represent about 50% of the electorate) have real influence on what the government can and cannot do.

It seems that checks and balances, the separation of the executive, legislature and judiciary, all those good things I learned about at school 50 years ago, have just produced paralysis, polarisation and corruption (sorry, super PACs).

    David Simpson

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