Is Magna Carta still relevant: Did She Die In Vain?

On Monday 15th June, we celebrated the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta; an important date in the history of democracy. Well, not according to some experts such as Dr David Starkey, for whom it was a first - and largely abortive - attempt to limit the power of the King, for the benefit of the nobility of the day, rather than the 'people'.

I am not a good enough historian to know whether he - and they - are right, but I suspect that they have a strong reason for claiming that the original document has less impact on our lives today - or indeed did so on the lives of our forefathers almost a millennium ago - that we choose to remember now.

But, for me at least, that is not really the point. What the Great Charter did, was to start the process whereby the Monarch - and by inference the modern state - was no longer above the law, but subject to it. This might sound rather strange, in that the government can always change the law to suit its purpose, when it want to. But that is, in fact, the point. Governments cannot simply issue a Lettre de cachet like Louis XIV, and his ministers, to bring about a desired result; they have to bring before parliament a bill and have it passed by both houses and signed by the monarch, in order to bring it into effect.

Ours is a far from perfect system, in that governments appear sometimes to hide behind arcane regulations, including the Official Secrets Act, in order to get the results they crave. But in general, it is difficult for governments to act in such a way as to disregard the will of the nation. That it did so in invading Iraq in 2003 was with the approval of parliament, although one might question the means by which this was achieved, including some dodgy information about weapons of mass destruction.

During the last five years, the Liberal Democrats acted as a - sometimes, perhaps, imperfect - conscience for the Tory-led coalition. But in essence, the will of the people is generally best served by the voice of the House of Commons.

Even if imperfect in its genesis - and its several-times revised content - the Magna Carta has served as the foundation not only for the freedoms which we enjoy in this country, but also for those available in many other parts of the world.

It is worth remembering that in those places where doctrinaire views are given greater importance than the needs of the individual, the Magna Carta is not part of their culture.

Perhaps those wishing to subvert our democracy, by whatever means, should remember that without the freedoms our forebears won for us, starting at Runnymede in the time of King John, they would not have the ability to fight against what we hold so important: the liberal views that make us what we are.

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Stephen Phillips is a member of the Shepway Liberal Democrats, and his views are not necessarily those of the Party. He has been writing professionally for many years on investment and economic related issues, and has focussed recently on creative writing.

You can find Stephen online at www.phillips-writer.co.uk