About this episode

Barrister Steven Barrett discusses the issues plaguing Britain's legal system and the impact of Blair-era reforms with host Liz Truss.

Barrister Steven Barrett joins Liz Truss to explain why he believes Britain’s legal system is broken — and why the problem goes far deeper than bad laws. In this explosive conversation, Barrett argues that Britain now has too many laws, badly written legislation, overmighty regulators, an unaccountable bureaucracy, and a constitutional settlement reshaped by Blair-era reforms. From Ofcom and “due impartiality” to the Human Rights Act, ECHR, EU law, the Lord Chancellor, the Supreme Court, the civil service and the power of unelected officials, this is a forensic discussion about who really governs Britain. Liz and Steven discuss whether Parliament has lost control, why Conservative governments failed to reverse the Blair/Brown settlement, how regulators and quangos wield power, why business leaders are afraid to speak out, and what a future reforming government would need to do to restore democratic accountability. Is Britain suffering from managed decline — or can the system still be fixed? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

People in this episode

Host: Liz Truss

Guest: Steven Barrett

Topics covered

• Britain's legal system
• government accountability
• regulatory power
• Blair-era reforms
• democratic reform
• legislation issues

Keywords

• legal system
• Blair
• regulators
• democracy
• legislation
• accountability
• ECHR
• Supreme Court

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ofcom, ECHR, EU, Supreme Court, Human Rights Act, civil service

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