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Daily News Analysis

Britain’s archaic system in dire need of reforms

Crescent International

The latest news from Britain’s corridors of power resembles more a tragic comedy of some cynical novel than a serious functioning state system.

The document widely talked about in the news over the past couple of days about the double standards of Covid-19 restrictions is creating much noise worldwide.

However, to many astute analysts, a report compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray, who investigated a series of revelations about Prime Minister Boris Johnson blatantly violating COVID-19 restrictions is not surprising.

British political culture is highly elitist, classist and racist.

Remember the Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey?

It revealed that some British royals were concerned about the skin color of her first-born child!

This should not come as a surprise either.

Why was anyone surprised? Don’t people read the history of Britain’s top political institutions and mega-crimes it perpetrates globally?

We are talking about a political system and political culture where in 2022, top offices of significant power and influence are still inherited.

Even in a major institution of power—the House of Lords—whose name alone is antithesis to electoral process, a hereditary system of power transition is still used.

Another massive news report circulating these days about Britain’s power elites is the sex scandal case of Prince Andrew.

A court case in the US related to sexual assault of Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 (underage) could undermine the reputation of the British political caste on an unprecedented level.

It should be remembered that the case of Jeffrey Epstein caught the attention of the mainstream media because of his close ties to Western ruling elites.

Thus, it would not be surprising, if in the process of Prince Andrew’s court case, other prominent names pop-up.

The news of scandalous behavior by British politicians should trigger a wider debate in British society about the archaic system of British political culture.

Elitism is deeply ingrained within the ethos of British culture, and it manifests itself on multiple levels.

In 2018, Philip Alston, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated that the UK government’s austerity policies inflicted “great misery” on its own people with “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” policies.

If such a damming report had been issued about a government at odds with the West, it would be weaponized and talked about for decades.

The country would be branded as dysfunctional and thus discredited.

Unfortunately, most people have short memories and have forgotten about the UN report on Britain’s dysfunctional economic approach.

The so-called impartial BBC does not refer to it as frequently as it does, for instance, to mistakes by the Venezuelan or Iranian governments.

Ordinarily, the dysfunctionality and frequent scandalous revelations of Britain’s outdated political system would not be of much concern globally.

However, Britain is one of the regimes which regularly tells others how they should govern themselves and does so in a violent fashion, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Argentina and Venezuela.

It is time to flip the discussion and advocate for a more representative political system in Britain.

Such an approach might also have some positive ramifications on states which still take London as a political signpost, from Brunei to Canada.


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