Britain’s constitutional dilemma: who now runs the country?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2019
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Supreme Court has ruled that Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament was unlawful, turning a page on the country’s constitution. The Supreme Court president Lady Hale said "the effect on the fundamentals of democracy was extreme."
The Prime Minister responded that he "strongly disagrees" with the ruling but will "respect" it.
So is British democracy at a crossroads? In an extended edition of the Briefing Room, David Aaronovitch asks who is running Britain and is it now time to have a written constitution.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Alison Young, Professor of Public Law, University of Cambridge.
Philip Norton, Professor of Government, and Director of the Centre for Legislative Studies, University of Hull
David Allen Green, contributing editor to the Financial Times and lawyer at Preiskel & Co
Michael Keating, Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change at Edinburgh University and Professor of Politics, at the University of Aberdeen.
Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, Senior Fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe
Murray Hunt, Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law
Producer: Neil Koenig Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David O'Ronovich. |
| 0:08.1 | Let's imagine we're in a large room in a converted warehouse, perhaps, |
| 0:12.0 | crammed with reference books, charts, maps, |
| 0:14.6 | and a small army of leading experts who in the next hour's podcast |
| 0:18.2 | can tell us everything we might want to know about the burning issues of the day. |
| 0:22.9 | This week, the British Constitution. |
| 0:26.1 | And if you enjoy this podcast, you might enjoy some of our other episodes, |
| 0:29.7 | including, given the news on falling vaccine uptakes, |
| 0:33.0 | the one on the cases for and against compulsory vaccination. |
| 0:36.8 | You can find them all on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.7 | On Tuesday, within hours of the Spider-Broached Lady Hale announcing the Supreme Court's landmark decision on the prerogation of Parliament, a company had produced and completely sold out of Spider-Motief T-shirts. |
| 1:05.0 | Four million viewers had apparently watched the live broadcasting of her statement, which outlined constitutional principles going back centuries. |
| 1:14.1 | Most of them will have realised that this was all very important, |
| 1:17.7 | and many will have wondered where it left us in terms of some really big questions. |
| 1:22.4 | How should we be governed, and does our constitution still work? |
| 1:26.7 | So in this week's extended programme, |
| 1:28.3 | I want to understand whether Britain's Constitution needs overhauling, |
| 1:33.3 | and if so, how would anyone go about doing it? |
| 1:36.3 | Step inside the briefing room to find out. |
| 1:50.3 | There's no point in hanging around. We'll start with the basics. What exactly is a constitution and why should I care about it? I'm joined in the briefing room by Alison Young, |
| 1:56.0 | Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge. Alison Young, what is a constitution? |
... |
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