“The most fundamental principal of British Law, that reaches from the Magna Carta in 1215 through the Bill of Rights of 1688 to lay the foundation of all today's great constitutions under Britannia’s sway,
is the protection of the people from the arbitrary whims of Sovereign Power.”
Government has a different opinion of things...
Existing in response to centuries of sovereign trespass, the Constitution can be summarized as the demand of the Magna Carta that Government act according to law submitted to the demand of the Bill of Rights that only Parliament may make that law. It is by the demand Parliament make the Law and Government obey the Law that the People are ensured the power to choose for themselves their rights and liberties and the burden of Government they bear.
This demand Parliament is sovereign and Government servant is no mere administrative detail, underscored by the centuries of bloody conflict between Protestants and Catholics, knowledge and agreement of the lawful possession of sovereign power, of whose law is law, exists as that central fundamental fact of the law to which all other is submitted.
An Obnoxious Game of Chicken
Despite the most formal of oaths, across the world governments desiring a return to legislative power, relentlessly erode and subvert the very constitutions they are sworn to protect. From outright "Bully Bluster and Bullshit" through to subtle constitutional reimagining, an obnoxious game of constitutional chicken is continuously played, demanding the Constitution be actively defended, or lost.
"It has been said before: All it takes for all to be lost, is to simply do nothing."
- In the United States due process rights are stripped by executive order, tariffs are imposed for contrary purposes, while the whole notion of seeking congressional approval before acting is ignored in its entirety.
- The United Kingdom has Government bypassing the whole process of seeking Parliamentary approval of rights abusive regulation and then relying on retrospective parliamentary approval to paper over their failures when caught.
- in Australia, in a case of it being the guy you least expect its pretty much a constitutional train wreck. Legislation is found written into contracts, buried away in software programs, primary legislation is relabelled as regulation to be waved through the Parliament unread, commercial terms that exist wholly under executive power are explicity granted status equal to legislation of the Parliament. It all done with bipartisan support.
- To add insult to injury, with Government appointed judiciaries increasingly relying on what can only be called "magical" law to bring about constitutional change by stealth, it is impossible to have confidence that judicial rulings are in fact law and not expressions of political desire.
