Steven Barrett

The dividing wall between law and politics is under attack

All my legal life I have watched with sadness those who are ever groping, Gollum-like, unable to resist the idea that our courts can somehow give them the political victory which the elections deny them. During the fallout from the Brexit vote, I hoped this insanity had reached its peak. I was wrong.

We are only four months into the year and already members of the House of Lords have advocated that our courts have a say in determining our foreign policy, while the House of Commons Privileges Committee has suggested our courts should enforce the appearance of witnesses before parliament — and that they should effectively be a court (which they aren’t capable of being).

I’ve already had to intervene in whatever the ‘Good’ Law Project thinks it is doing in the courts over PPE here. Now the suggestion is being seriously made that the Prime Minister should be taken to court via private prosecution over tragic Covid deaths and prosecuted for over 150,000 cases of murder.

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