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Have the Tories cowed the Judges?
The Economist has just issued its Democracy Index and I have had another go at scoring the UK. It asks several questions about redress and petition which took me to Judicial Review which clearly by observation is failing and more dramatically but less visibly away from the corridors of power i.e. in the offices of the civil service outside Westminster. In my review, I observed that Judges are appointed by, promoted by, and paid for by Governments. These views, or at least those that question the committent of the courts to the rule of law, it seems are shared by Jo Maugham who makes his point in a tweet thread, which I have gathered into one place using threadreaderapp and copied here.
Jo says, “They think their immigration plans will be blessed by English courts but fear they will be overturned in international courts — and the real question is why. Is it because international courts don’t apply the law — or because English courts don’t apply the law?”
“Judicial review success rates have collapsed in England — in all courts including the Supreme Court. This can be seen in the data — and it is attributable to a change in judicial attitudes after years of…
