I once worked for a publicly listed company  which had a very charismatic and passionate CEO who founded the company.  As a result, he set the moral compass and values of the organisation.  And while this resulted in a period of success and market change, the far-reaching impact was many lived in fear and forgot about truth and honesty.  So when big decisions came to invest in a more risky and global enterprise, it was the CEO and the ever voracious appetite of shareholders which resulted in what became a catastrophic over reaching  of capacity and capability.  At the time when we most needed an effective Chairman and Board to ask calm and collected questions and balance the power of the CEO, they were effectively sidelined by his single-minded vision for the future.

Today as a nation, we teeter on the edge of a similar story.

The structure of governance in our country has developed since the  Magna Carta, to create balance and fair challenge and to protect our democracy and rule of law.  Our  (un-codified) constitution defines how we govern our democracy and sets out the way in which our country will be run.  It ensures power is balanced and limited, to safeguard and protect the rights and freedoms of the citizens of our country and it does this by giving three main bodies constitutional power:

1.  The Executive (Government)

2. Legislature (Parliament)

3. Judiciary (judges)

By separating these three bodies they provide a check on each other, ensuring power is not concentrated on any one area.

I share this because I’m struggling to understand the vehemence of some of the news headlines and media reports, and by the dangerous rhetoric espoused by some un-elected spokespeople, as a result of the decision taken by the Judiciary last Thursday about who has the power to trigger Article 50 and the exit of the UK from the European Union.

This decision was founded in our constitution – the Government cannot take away the rights of all of its people (those who voted in, or out, or who did not, or could not, vote at all) by issuing an Executive decree.  So when Teresa May told the Conservative party at their annual jamboree in September that she would trigger article 50 by March 2017 – the Judiciary have decided she was breaching the limits of her power.

As UK citizens, we elect our members of Parliament to act and make decisions on our behalf.  Their role is to represent us and their political party by participating in debates and voting on legislation and other matters. We cede our control of decisions to our elected MPs.  Our rights (including are we in or out of the European Union) can only be taken away by an Act of Parliament, voted for by our MPs  and this is why the Judiciary have ruled that the Government alone cannot invoke Article 50 to trigger our exit from the European Union.

In the context of Brexit, much as though it was lovely to have our say, it was never legally binding as constitutionally we don’t recognise the opinions of individuals.  Our current democratic principles mean we have given the right to make these decisions to our elected Members of Parliament.

But this is not how some sections of the media are reporting this.  There have been personal attacks on individual judges, a bullying Governmental line, an ineffectual and embarrassing Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss, who took over 24 hours to defend the constitution and Judiciary (and whose defence was less than weak) and a general lack of understanding of democratic governance in our country.

So what kind of democracy do we want?

Let’s look at our choices.  We can have a smaller, national democracy focused solely on the rights of all UK citizens.  We can have a larger, more international democracy focused on the rights of a broader population such as Europe.  We can have no democracy at all and instead go for a, hopefully benign, dictatorship.  There is no such thing as a perfect democracy.  No one size fits all.  Look around the world – each nation-state has its pluses and minuses in how it chooses to govern  and enact their rules of law.  However, the point is that it is impossible to give voice to each individual, and on every decision; for society to function, we need to place the responsibility to make and implement decisions for the many in the few.  That’s a big responsibility, both for those passing it on, and those receiving it.  And that’s why the independence of the judiciary is so important.

And to get an idea of what those choices may be, we need look no further than our American allies and their codified constitution, where possibly they are facing an even bigger catastrophe about their national identity and how they see themselves.  Voters there have a choice between the rock and the hard place.  But plainly there is one vote that will uphold their existing constitution and rule of law, even if she is feathering her own nest at the same time, and one who has clearly, unequivocally stated he will operate largely as a dictator and ignore any checks and balances on his power and decision making process.  I’m not even sure I would describe Trump as benign.

So let’s not sleepwalk into complacency.  We have a Parliamentary democracy, which operates with the governance of the Executive and Judiciary to balance out its power for very good reason.

No matter how you voted in the European referendum, there are broader questions to be considered.  Who do you believe has the right to make decisions on your behalf?  What kind of check and balance do you want on how much they can decide on?  What should you be able to do and say should they make decisions you don’t agree with?

For while it’s true that no one thing should ever be always remaining just how it is, surely in terms of how we democratically make laws and decisions, to undermine a system that has developed over hundred’s of years, and is modelled throughout the world, can only lead to a less democratic and fair society.

So let’s pause. Let’s consider the impact on all of us, of this continuous drip feed of negativity and challenge. How much more fearful do we become? How much do we step away from our heritage and ways of governance into a pseudo democracy where we cede decision-making control into the hands of newspaper barons and those who shout the loudest.

Be careful of what we wish for. Before it’s too late.