Freedom of thought and speech comprise something akin to an absolute rule - everyone is entitled to think whatever they want to think - and a series of relative rules - everyone is entitled to express those opinions in public, at least according to the context of this speech and its impact on other citizens.
Suella Braverman has helpfully put her career on the line (I'd have to say hopefully too!), in order to demonstrate this.
She clearly has some views on the standards being applied by the Met. She is entitled to them. She may or may not be right. But as a member of HM’s Government, Home Secretary no less, she (probably) ought not to be expressing them in the media in the manner she has done.
If the UK Government is saying out loud that it cannot actually control the justice system, then it is more or less in the same situation as its equivalent in Guatemala.
And we don't really believe them either.
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If the UK Government is saying out loud that it cannot actually control the justice system, then it is more or less in the same situation as its equivalent in Guatemala.
The courts, at least here in the US are supposed to be independent of the executive and legislative parts of our government-all the way up and down the levels of government. In practice, this is not remotely 100%. Our courts make some strange decisions at all levels, head scratchers from the common pleas level, all the way to the top courts of lifetime appointed people at the Federal level. It is messy and I suspect it was designed to be messy. A process designed for compromise, that requires cooperation between all three government branches to overturn or change those strange decisions. We had to kill well over a million Americans to settle Dread Scott-it is messy.
The Met reports in part to the Mayor. It has some useful autonomy. But it remains the Home Sec’s job to work with the system not bleat about it in the media. By saying there have been double standards she has invited nationalist hooligans to come out and test the theory.
I still suspect much of the current street protest is being kept on a long leash because it is a very good time to gather data for later, after the war. In our permanent video and sound world, nothing goes away. The near past is always accessible for future evidence of one's political thought.
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