Amazing yet depressing Pete. I hope your article will reach the right eyes and be taken on board. Can we sack the Judiciary? Can we sack those in the Blob that undermine the 'will of the people'?
That's exactly where new law is needed - judges and the civil service have become left wing / globalist agitators and enforcers. Pointless doing anything at all until that has been sorted out.
We only need to look into Europe to seen what can be done within the ECHR. The problem is, as you say, our own judiciary. That is the main problem and really time spent on EHCR is time wasted, we may as well piggy back other European countries as they come to the conclusion it's not fit for purpose, so it will need reform or become impotent like WTO.
I agree. The primary necessity for a government is to remove the obstacles to effective action. As e.g., Dominic Cummings keeps saying, if you play the hostile and obstructive system by its own game, the system wins.
On the ECHR, one should keep sight of the goal, which is to stop unwelcome interference with the laws we choose to live under. As a first step, the Human Rights Act, which gives local effect to the ECHR, should go. Preoccupation with the Good Friday Agreement - and we saw this endlessly as the Blob tried to thwart Brexit - is frankly bellyaching. Steamroller it if necessary.
And we do not, in my view, need to spend time trying to put together some kind of alternative ECHR or Bill of Rights. We have rights under law, as we have always had. That is what rights are.
Decide what needs doing and do it. Swiftly. The Blob's favourite tools are procrastination and legalism. We need to cut the Gordian Knot, not five years of jabber.
Remember when we were being told, constantly, that this or that Brexit move was not possible because of "WTO rules"? Now we have Trump. Who is bleating about WTO rules now?
As I say, remove the obstacles to effective action. That is primary.
Hi, I completely agree. The complications are baked in so as to make it almost impossible to free the country from its own lawfare. It would be great to have some fantastic right thinking lawyers willing to get their heads together to find the out for such problems. I hold out no other hope!
"As such, we need more grown-up thinking, recognising that any right wing government is going to be in with a fragile mandate and a narrow majority, and must be wise in how it spends political capital - and how it uses government bandwidth." - I think you seem to be completely correct with regard to the ridiculous levels of complexity which the British state has gotten itself tied up in. I had suspected that the ECHR issue was inexorably tied up in geopolitical issues and I suspect the EU is probably holding it as a knife against the UK. I also suspect that it is seen that it would affect various postures, such as against Russia in Ukraine or anywhere else the UK is preening as the defender of minorities, which are obviously underpinned by the appeals to moral claims of human rights.
The problem is the UK state does not possess the capabilities to enact the careful and nuanced maneuvers needed to evolve out of this. At this point, It doesn't even have the capability to make a ham and cheese sandwich, even if you handed it the bread, the ham, and the cheese along with a video tutorial on how to place a slice of ham on top of a slice of bread, followed by a slice of cheese, and then finished with a slice of bread.
The UK is currently facing a debt crisis that will probably blow up if there is another bout of inflation. It is also suffering from catastrophic immigration that has torn the heart out of the country and made mass unrest palpably likely (I would say inevitable at this point, its just waiting for a spark.) You have open talk of revolution and even papers of record talking about the state lacking basic legitimacy. You do not row back from that and I think those in authority are weak and have demonstrated a lack of understanding of how power works.
The next election, if we even manage to limp to that, will be a crushing victory for Reform. I do not support them, and I am not evangelizing for them. I am just stating the obvious. The Tories are now entirely finished. The Afghan debacle just put a bullet through their head. Labor are done in every conceivable way. They are holding the bag as the UK state goes under. There is only one party with any pull, and that is Reform. It will be a blood bath.
The next election won't be a normal election. It will be a full blown constitutional crisis. We are not in Kansas anymore and I don't think people are processing that fully yet. The state has run out of time, money, and the patience of the population is pretty much gone.
"the situation we're in now is something we evolved into over three decades, and it's going to require a similar process of evolution out of it. "
In 1916, Ireland had been bound into the UK for about 300 years, but it only took 5 years to get out.
There is no reason why one Act of Parliament shouldn't repeal 62 others.
Human rights lawyers are almost entirely funded by the taxpayers - cut off the money and most of the lawfare will disappear.
Judges and civil serpents behave as if they are entitled to ignore elected governments because they've been allowed to get away withg it. Cut their pay by 40% and things will change rapidly.
And why do you even mention the EU and international courts? If the EU tries to sustain illegal migration into Britain, it will outrage 80% of its own population.
At least this piece is slightly less depressing than your last one! I'm with you on Douglas Carswell.
It's worth remembering that the issue that raised the significance of the ECHR was the difficulty of deporting illegals. Can that be achieved without ECHR abolition? Absolutely the pull factors must be removed, but in the end, we have to be able to boot the buggers out. Not aware of an alternative workaround. Delighted to be proved wrong.
As much as I hate where our country is now, we can't ignore the long march through the institutions that got us to this point, and the reality that it's going to be a long march back.
Unconvincing. We've heard all this for decades. It sounds like the same kind of "complexity" presented to explain why leaving the EU was impossible - yet all of it was bollocks, in the end, and the biggest problems by far were the fifth columnists who were perfectly happy to tear up every rule they claimed was deeply meaningful in an attempt to stop it happening.
If the GFA is a problem, present the Irish government with a rewritten version and announce that from now on, that's the version that will be followed. They are welcome to tear it up and go back to there being nothing, if they like. If Irish Republican terrorism flares back up redirect the entire budget of the security services to fighting them, and reintroduce the death penalty for those who are caught.
As for the courts: they are run by civil servants, and judges are likewise ordinary employees of the government. Repeal whatever laws are needed, and then fire anyone in the court system who is making absurd judgements.
The "oh my goodness everything is so complex" line is played out and tired. It is the line of the previous generation, the type who mounted an illegitimate #Resistance to Trump in his first term and the type who have simply been swept away in his second despite Trump facing a much more constraining constitutional culture than anything you have in the UK. You Can, in fact and to much surprise, Just Do Things™.
Personally I doubt it will happen. The UK political will is too weak and inchoate; well-heeled lefty-prick lawyers will ensure that any attempts to extricate ourselves from their legally-binding legislation will (at best) proceed at a glacial rate. Personally I see a collapse of the EU itself as more likely to happen first. There are ominous signs that are causing consternation in Euro circles, and that's not even taking into account the aging demographic nightmare plaguing most Euro nations (including the UK), particularly Italy & Germany.
The more time goes by & the more the Right fracture into multifarious Parties, the more I'm convinced that our democratic process just isn't up to the job of sorting out the mess that this Country is in.
Evolution is likely to take a lifetime, & will be seriously frustrated by the Far Left at every opportunity.
Therefore we're left only with the alternative....Revolution.
Any right wing government will have to have a plan to deal with the left wing bureaucracy before getting into power. Right now, elected representatives have very little real power to implement their ideas. Remember the TV program “Yes, Minister”? Ministers need to have the power to sack the top echelon of bureaucrats. I would sack all those with left wing ideas, and go through to the lower level, younger bureaucrats, and promise them the jobs of those sacked, provided they do what the Minister says. No excuses, no prevarication, just implementation. The judiciary also badly needs sorting out, there are too many leftist judges and magistrates. . All this might become moot though. If Dr David Betz of Kings College is right, the UK could be faced with an insurgency within the term of this Parliament. In such a case of chaos, power could be taken away from the bureaucracy and the existing structures totally destroyed. Very traumatic and dangerous, but I don’t see much alternative. This type of reform can’t be done without drastic action. We are coming into a period similar to the rise of Oliver Cromwell. I don’t see Farage having that sort of character though. The UK desperately needs a similar leader to Cromwell, because the state is rotten through and through.
Amazing yet depressing Pete. I hope your article will reach the right eyes and be taken on board. Can we sack the Judiciary? Can we sack those in the Blob that undermine the 'will of the people'?
That's exactly where new law is needed - judges and the civil service have become left wing / globalist agitators and enforcers. Pointless doing anything at all until that has been sorted out.
We only need to look into Europe to seen what can be done within the ECHR. The problem is, as you say, our own judiciary. That is the main problem and really time spent on EHCR is time wasted, we may as well piggy back other European countries as they come to the conclusion it's not fit for purpose, so it will need reform or become impotent like WTO.
The left (or Globalists) have the confidence to subvert the law when against them - non hate crimes anyone?
In the USA they even ignored their bill of rights to advocate racist actions claiming ‘justice’ for minorities.
For ANY discussion we first of all have to assume a majority of nationalist/right wingers in government.
Peter doesn’t accept that being in control allows a government to push the narrative.
For instance, the Irish have breached the GFA by allowing non Irish people to violate the Northern Ireland border.
The law in the UK on illegal immigration is manipulated to make it legal.
Peter needs to realise that once you have like minded people in positions of power, the narrative changes.
I agree. The primary necessity for a government is to remove the obstacles to effective action. As e.g., Dominic Cummings keeps saying, if you play the hostile and obstructive system by its own game, the system wins.
On the ECHR, one should keep sight of the goal, which is to stop unwelcome interference with the laws we choose to live under. As a first step, the Human Rights Act, which gives local effect to the ECHR, should go. Preoccupation with the Good Friday Agreement - and we saw this endlessly as the Blob tried to thwart Brexit - is frankly bellyaching. Steamroller it if necessary.
And we do not, in my view, need to spend time trying to put together some kind of alternative ECHR or Bill of Rights. We have rights under law, as we have always had. That is what rights are.
Decide what needs doing and do it. Swiftly. The Blob's favourite tools are procrastination and legalism. We need to cut the Gordian Knot, not five years of jabber.
Remember when we were being told, constantly, that this or that Brexit move was not possible because of "WTO rules"? Now we have Trump. Who is bleating about WTO rules now?
As I say, remove the obstacles to effective action. That is primary.
Hi, I completely agree. The complications are baked in so as to make it almost impossible to free the country from its own lawfare. It would be great to have some fantastic right thinking lawyers willing to get their heads together to find the out for such problems. I hold out no other hope!
Very well written, and even with writing about the issues in this little detail, outlines the shape of the beast...
As you wrote, - the issue is with ourselves. And as some comments wrote here, not all of EU really gives a toss about EHCR.
We either change, or the change will be forced upon us.
"As such, we need more grown-up thinking, recognising that any right wing government is going to be in with a fragile mandate and a narrow majority, and must be wise in how it spends political capital - and how it uses government bandwidth." - I think you seem to be completely correct with regard to the ridiculous levels of complexity which the British state has gotten itself tied up in. I had suspected that the ECHR issue was inexorably tied up in geopolitical issues and I suspect the EU is probably holding it as a knife against the UK. I also suspect that it is seen that it would affect various postures, such as against Russia in Ukraine or anywhere else the UK is preening as the defender of minorities, which are obviously underpinned by the appeals to moral claims of human rights.
The problem is the UK state does not possess the capabilities to enact the careful and nuanced maneuvers needed to evolve out of this. At this point, It doesn't even have the capability to make a ham and cheese sandwich, even if you handed it the bread, the ham, and the cheese along with a video tutorial on how to place a slice of ham on top of a slice of bread, followed by a slice of cheese, and then finished with a slice of bread.
The UK is currently facing a debt crisis that will probably blow up if there is another bout of inflation. It is also suffering from catastrophic immigration that has torn the heart out of the country and made mass unrest palpably likely (I would say inevitable at this point, its just waiting for a spark.) You have open talk of revolution and even papers of record talking about the state lacking basic legitimacy. You do not row back from that and I think those in authority are weak and have demonstrated a lack of understanding of how power works.
The next election, if we even manage to limp to that, will be a crushing victory for Reform. I do not support them, and I am not evangelizing for them. I am just stating the obvious. The Tories are now entirely finished. The Afghan debacle just put a bullet through their head. Labor are done in every conceivable way. They are holding the bag as the UK state goes under. There is only one party with any pull, and that is Reform. It will be a blood bath.
The next election won't be a normal election. It will be a full blown constitutional crisis. We are not in Kansas anymore and I don't think people are processing that fully yet. The state has run out of time, money, and the patience of the population is pretty much gone.
"the situation we're in now is something we evolved into over three decades, and it's going to require a similar process of evolution out of it. "
In 1916, Ireland had been bound into the UK for about 300 years, but it only took 5 years to get out.
There is no reason why one Act of Parliament shouldn't repeal 62 others.
Human rights lawyers are almost entirely funded by the taxpayers - cut off the money and most of the lawfare will disappear.
Judges and civil serpents behave as if they are entitled to ignore elected governments because they've been allowed to get away withg it. Cut their pay by 40% and things will change rapidly.
And why do you even mention the EU and international courts? If the EU tries to sustain illegal migration into Britain, it will outrage 80% of its own population.
At least this piece is slightly less depressing than your last one! I'm with you on Douglas Carswell.
It's worth remembering that the issue that raised the significance of the ECHR was the difficulty of deporting illegals. Can that be achieved without ECHR abolition? Absolutely the pull factors must be removed, but in the end, we have to be able to boot the buggers out. Not aware of an alternative workaround. Delighted to be proved wrong.
Well said, Pete.
As much as I hate where our country is now, we can't ignore the long march through the institutions that got us to this point, and the reality that it's going to be a long march back.
In practical terms, this is a counsel of despair. Not saying I disagree
Unconvincing. We've heard all this for decades. It sounds like the same kind of "complexity" presented to explain why leaving the EU was impossible - yet all of it was bollocks, in the end, and the biggest problems by far were the fifth columnists who were perfectly happy to tear up every rule they claimed was deeply meaningful in an attempt to stop it happening.
If the GFA is a problem, present the Irish government with a rewritten version and announce that from now on, that's the version that will be followed. They are welcome to tear it up and go back to there being nothing, if they like. If Irish Republican terrorism flares back up redirect the entire budget of the security services to fighting them, and reintroduce the death penalty for those who are caught.
As for the courts: they are run by civil servants, and judges are likewise ordinary employees of the government. Repeal whatever laws are needed, and then fire anyone in the court system who is making absurd judgements.
The "oh my goodness everything is so complex" line is played out and tired. It is the line of the previous generation, the type who mounted an illegitimate #Resistance to Trump in his first term and the type who have simply been swept away in his second despite Trump facing a much more constraining constitutional culture than anything you have in the UK. You Can, in fact and to much surprise, Just Do Things™.
Maybe we should have the NI Secretary decide it is time to take a punt on a Border Poll?
If they decide upon reunification, then at least one problem will be simplified, if not removed.
Personally I doubt it will happen. The UK political will is too weak and inchoate; well-heeled lefty-prick lawyers will ensure that any attempts to extricate ourselves from their legally-binding legislation will (at best) proceed at a glacial rate. Personally I see a collapse of the EU itself as more likely to happen first. There are ominous signs that are causing consternation in Euro circles, and that's not even taking into account the aging demographic nightmare plaguing most Euro nations (including the UK), particularly Italy & Germany.
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-economic-apocalypse/
The more time goes by & the more the Right fracture into multifarious Parties, the more I'm convinced that our democratic process just isn't up to the job of sorting out the mess that this Country is in.
Evolution is likely to take a lifetime, & will be seriously frustrated by the Far Left at every opportunity.
Therefore we're left only with the alternative....Revolution.
We need another Oliver Cromwell......
Any right wing government will have to have a plan to deal with the left wing bureaucracy before getting into power. Right now, elected representatives have very little real power to implement their ideas. Remember the TV program “Yes, Minister”? Ministers need to have the power to sack the top echelon of bureaucrats. I would sack all those with left wing ideas, and go through to the lower level, younger bureaucrats, and promise them the jobs of those sacked, provided they do what the Minister says. No excuses, no prevarication, just implementation. The judiciary also badly needs sorting out, there are too many leftist judges and magistrates. . All this might become moot though. If Dr David Betz of Kings College is right, the UK could be faced with an insurgency within the term of this Parliament. In such a case of chaos, power could be taken away from the bureaucracy and the existing structures totally destroyed. Very traumatic and dangerous, but I don’t see much alternative. This type of reform can’t be done without drastic action. We are coming into a period similar to the rise of Oliver Cromwell. I don’t see Farage having that sort of character though. The UK desperately needs a similar leader to Cromwell, because the state is rotten through and through.