FediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

I don't know if people in the UK realise how much danger there is from Reform.

The UK political system has no written constitution, it has left the EU and two of its major parties say they intend to leave the ECHR. Leaving the ECHR would allow the UK parliament to do anything it wants including a re-run of 1930s/40s Germany.

There would be no supreme court to stop it because there is no constitution. The monarchy wouldn't do anything either.

Fascists in power in the UK would have no checks and balances. Trump has at least had some speedbumps slowing him down, Farage would have nothing stopping him at all.

Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing Because that is stopping Trump. Nothing magical about a constitution. It certainly had a charter, though I suspect it's adapted over the years
Show threadFediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

@ariaflame

It hasn't stopped him but it's slowed him down. If the US Supreme Court had non-corrupt members it might slow him down even more, or perhaps stop some things.

But there is no structure like that in the UK, and the only restrictions are things like the EU and ECHR.

The UK's EU membership is gone, the ECHR membership is under threat. If that goes too, then pretty much anything becomes legal for whoever has a majority in parliament. Whatever they want, they could pass a law to enable it and there would be nothing restraining them.

Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing Oh, are you an expert on the UK legal system?
Show threadFediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

@ariaflame

You don't have to be an expert to realise there is no written constitution in the UK.

And it also doesn't require legal training to know that when the UK has denied people human rights, people have often managed to get these rights back by taking the case to the European Court. That would stop if the UK withdraws from the ECHR.

Human rights would then be entirely decided by whoever has a majority in the UK parliament. If that's a fascist party, then the UK is in big trouble.

Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing SCOTUS isn't exactly maintaining human rights or the constitution in the USA after all. Whether it's a written constitution or not, it depends on whether people honour it.
Show threadFediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

@ariaflame

I agree, and once you have corrupt people in such courts they become pointless, but there is at least some kind of slowdown there.

If the judges had been appointed in a less corrupt manner, the court would have had more effect.

In the UK there is nothing at all like that.

Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing And of course the USA doesn't feel itself held to any of the Human Rights declaration either. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain that the Declaration "does not of its own force impose obligations as a matter of international law", and that the political branches of the U.S. federal government can "scrutinize" the nation's obligations to international instruments and their enforceability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Wikipedia

Show threadFediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

@ariaflame

Sure, but having a written constitution does have some use. For example it was the constitution's requirement to hold a federal election in 2020 which took Trump out of power after his first term (even though he tried to incite an armed rebellion against the result).

There is nothing like that forcing a UK parliament to hold regular elections except whatever laws they decide to pass or amend.

Show threadAriaflame
@FediThing Given that SCOTUS is allowing him to act unconstitutionally, I don't see how that's an argument for how it's useful.
Jul 17 at 2:07pmWeb
Show threadFediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

@ariaflame

I agree a constitution by itself doesn't guarantee anything and a corrupt judiciary can ignore it, but having a written constitution is better than not having one. Not every judiciary is corrupt.

Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing Are all constitutions the same? How are they different from written law, or such things as the magna carta? How easily are they changed from country to country?
Show threadFediThing 🏳️‍🌈Jul 17

@ariaflame

They're obvs not the same but at least in democracies they usually do things like guarantee regular free elections, universal suffrage etc.

Nothing is a magic bullet, but a written constitution is another slice of swiss cheese in the layers protecting a country from despotism.

The UK now has dangerously few layers protecting itself from going down a grim path.

Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing Well the USA doesn't have those. They're not free if it's easy for the government to remove you from the rolls. If the government deliberately makes it harder to vote. If it aims to remove the rights and citizenships of its citizens. They might be on paper (some of them) but they don't seem to be doing anything.
Show threadAriaflameJul 17
@FediThing It is a shame they chose not to do ranked choice voting back in the day. That would have helped.