American politics no doubt suits Americans but it is a pretty bad fit for the UK. There are no end of things that simply can't be translated from one system to the other. Take for example the way judges work. In the UK the judges are independent. There is a long history behind this, but the upshot is that the role of the courts is to interpret the will of parliament as expressed by votes and debates in the House of Commons. Top judges are appointed by the government of the day but can't be influenced once they are appointed. On the whole the system works well.
The alternative is the situation you have in the US where judges are elected and often have party affiliations. This does have some kind of accountability and seems to work well enough, but I wouldn't choose to change to it. When the occasion arises - such as in the narrow election between Al Gore and George Bush - you can't be sure that a judgement is being reached for party interest rather than for genuine justice.
So it is very distressing to see UKIP's potential leader Suzanne Evans calling for judges to be politically controlled. This is all of a part with UKIP's worship of all things American. Even before Nigel Farage turned up on the stump alongside Donald Trump he had already made public his opinion that we should do away with the National Health Service and relax gun controls.
Even the most obviously nationalistic strand to UKIP's thinking doesn't really show much in the way of guts and British pluck. I don't agree with the way they interpret it, but you can at least respect the notion that sovereignty is important and that you should take some trouble to defend it. So wanting to be outside the EU regardless of the disadvantages to preserve the UK's right to self determination at least is courageous. But if we have given away some sovereignty by joining up with the EU we have given away a bucketful by signing up with NATO.
Do the self styled British patriots want to stand up to the United States. Not likely. In fact the way things are going it wouldn't be a complete surprise if they decided that having left the EU they would apply to join the US.
I just heard the same complaint from a French friend. What are they telling you all, that makes our system look worth emulating?
ReplyDeleteThe states aren't all the same, when it comes to judges. Most places, they're appointed by the executive, subject to confirmation by the legislature. Directly electing them is confined to our more Cro-Magnon districts.
Thanks Joe, I stand corrected. I thought it was general practice to elect judges.
DeleteI am right about there being some states where it is legal to marry your gun?