Constitutionally he’s completely right. A core concept in Britain’s constitution is that Parliament is sovereign and unfettered, so all of our written domestic constitution (the Bill of Rights, the Acts of Settlement, the Parliament Acts, and so on) takes the form of Acts of Parliament - which can therefore at any time be overturned by simple majority votes in Parliament. There is no separate codified constitution sitting ‘above’ Parliament.
If 50%+1 of Parliament wanted to vote that elections will no longer happen, or that certain minority groups should be rounded up and deported, or something else outrageous, then in theory there is nothing to stop them.
The preservation of liberal democracy in Britain therefore relies on two things:
International treaties and conventions - Parliament can’t pass laws to bind its future self, but it can sign up to international agreements that mean it is bound by international law outside its direct control. That’s one reason why the far right obsess over things like EU membership and membership of the ECHR - these are instances where we have signed up to things internationally that can act as a control on parliamentary excess, as a substitute for being able to do this domestically.
British politicians are fundamentally well-intentioned - politicians could in theory legislate for awful things but the political culture is one of liberal democracy and public service, so they don’t - the so-called ‘good chaps’ theory. That generally works, but it falls down when someone like Boris Johnson comes along, who was quite openly willing to abuse the ambiguity in the British constitution for personal and partisan gain.
Constitutionally he’s completely right. A core concept in Britain’s constitution is that Parliament is sovereign and unfettered, so all of our written domestic constitution (the Bill of Rights, the Acts of Settlement, the Parliament Acts, and so on) takes the form of Acts of Parliament - which can therefore at any time be overturned by simple majority votes in Parliament. There is no separate codified constitution sitting ‘above’ Parliament.
If 50%+1 of Parliament wanted to vote that elections will no longer happen, or that certain minority groups should be rounded up and deported, or something else outrageous, then in theory there is nothing to stop them.
The preservation of liberal democracy in Britain therefore relies on two things:
International treaties and conventions - Parliament can’t pass laws to bind its future self, but it can sign up to international agreements that mean it is bound by international law outside its direct control. That’s one reason why the far right obsess over things like EU membership and membership of the ECHR - these are instances where we have signed up to things internationally that can act as a control on parliamentary excess, as a substitute for being able to do this domestically.
British politicians are fundamentally well-intentioned - politicians could in theory legislate for awful things but the political culture is one of liberal democracy and public service, so they don’t - the so-called ‘good chaps’ theory. That generally works, but it falls down when someone like Boris Johnson comes along, who was quite openly willing to abuse the ambiguity in the British constitution for personal and partisan gain.