The law is the law, or is it?   According to our Prime Minister it only applies to him when it serves his needs!

I have just read ‘The Secret Barrister’s’ article “Justice League” which was published The Guardian’s Review Magazine pages 6-9 Saturday 22 August 2020.

This is a large mouthful to say, and even to write, but it is necessary to refer to this article and draw your attention to it, as for many of us the law and parliament are inseparable!  However, they are not; according to the Judges and Parliament, …The ultimate decision remains with Parliament and not the judiciary. Ultimately, the judiciary does no more, or less, under the 1998 Act than carry out its constitutional function of interpreting and applying the law enacted by Parliament. They only have such power as Parliament gave them in the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Attorney General is the link in the chain who provides guidance to parliament and the judiciary – however, a former Attorney General, Lord Mayhew of Twysden, said:

…the Attorney General has a duty to ensure that the Queen’s ministers who act in her name, or purport to act in her name, do act lawfully because it is his duty to help to secure the rule of law, the principal requirement of which is that the government itself acts lawfully.”

In his article, the Secret Barrister refers to how part of the government and also the new media seems to think that the judiciary has attempted to interfere with parliamentary actions and decision.  This is a complete fallacy, for parliament to work successfully, in order to maintain parliamentary sovereignty, be some legal limit… and that is what the judiciary provide.  Judicial review is not, as politicians would have the public believe, a tool by which judges overrule a political decision that they disagree with.  The questions that the courts decide are those of lawfulness, applying common law principles developed over centuries.

The Secret Barrister sums up by saying …if we lose judicial independence, we lose the rule of law.  The day a judge makes a binding decision affecting the rights and liberties of one of us, not on the legal and factual merits, but with a nervous glance to the press and public galleries, or with a  beady eye on political favour or punishment, is the day that the decay in our democracy turns terminal….

The day that this happens is the day that the government becomes omnipotent and Big Brother becomes the order of the day.

The government must remain accountable, and the judiciary must remain independent from government.