Justice for Sale
by David Robertson, theweeflea:
There are some things you don’t miss until you have lost them. Good health is most noticed when you don’t have it. Likewise growing up in a Western liberal democracy I suspect that most of us just take the rule of law and ‘equality before the law’ as givens.
However, as we continue to remove the Christian foundations of our society, there is a clear and present danger that this may no longer be the case.
The Johnson Case
Witness the case of Norwich businessman Marcus Ball who has taken out a private prosecution against the leading Tory leadership candidate Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson is to be prosecuted for misconduct in public office on the basis that he allegedly made false statements during the EU referendum campaign.
Reactions to this in our Twitterfied, divisive society, have been largely dependent on your political view. Those who voted Remain and dislike Johnson give a ‘like’ to the prosecution and think it is entirely justified. Those who support Johnson and regard him as the best hope for Brexit, cry persecution!
But without making judgements upon those politicised views, there are far more serious considerations to take on board.
Firstly, from a political and democratic perspective, this prosecution, if permitted, would mark a serious change in the way that law and politics interact in our culture.
Mr Johnson may have been less than accurate in his support of the claim that we send £350 million to the EU each week, but then George Osborne solemnly told us that within two years of a vote for Brexit unemployment would rise by 500,000 to 800,000. It fell. He also promised an emergency budget immediately after we voted for Brexit. Should Osborne be prosecuted? If this precedent were followed I would struggle to think of many politicians who could not be sued!
Justice for Sale
But the problem is even deeper than that. Raising private prosecutions is an expensive business. Mr Ball has raised over £350,000 from a crowd funding campaign. If we are going to have politics conducted through the courts, who will that benefit the most? The wealthy elites. And who will lose some of the little power they have? The powerless poor.
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