PRIME MINISTERS - Come and go, but when they get their chance, will they make a difference. The Rt Hon Rishi Sunack was the Prime Minister in 2023. In 2024 and 2025 it was Sir Kier Starmer. In this fictional adventure story, it is Edward (Honest Johnson) John Thomas.

Number 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA, is the traditional residence of the Prime Minister of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, constituting the United Kingdom. Number 11 is the home of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

This is a bit of a misnomer in that Southern Ireland is not united as part of the same land mass and group of islands. Hence, the term "united" is somewhat misleading. This might go some way to explaining joining the European Union and then Brexiting.

The United Kingdom is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. The current monarch in 2020 is Queen Elizabeth II. She has reigned since 1952, making her the world's longest-serving current head of state. The next in line to the throne is Prince William, now Prince of Wales and then Prince Harry. The former Prince Charles is now King Charles III. 

Jimmy is not into politics, but hopes one day to be able to vote for honest and decent politicians at elections. Those who know how to recover a declining economy, in a Britain that no longer makes anything. Just sells paper with promises to pay. Those promises being lies. There are no gold reserves for the new money being printed.

Many millionaires left the UK after Rachel Reeves began taxing, taxes on taxes, while others put their hard taxed cash into: gold, silver, precious stones, or land, to keep it out of the clutches of desperate chancellors. Other investments include historic vehicles, sugar (if you have a warehouse) and works of art.

The more tax you pay, the more politicians want from you, even when you pass away. Taxes can be invented at the whim of a politician, and raised or lowered. A Truly unsettling situation for investors in any country. If politicians and civil servants were all honest, many voters think taxes would be lower, and inflation net zero. And, your pension savings might be safe. There are no more Spanish treasure ships to plunder, to fill gaps in dodgy policies. And, the former colonial Empires are no longer lands to be plundered.

Tim is a bit more politically minded than Marion. He hates driving along potholed roads, such as the A271, on his way home to Herstmonceux. And the General cannot understand why we need to keep borrowing, where, the National Debt reflects years of overspending and borrowing based on unlimited growth, where such expansion is contrary to the ethos of sustainability and circular economics. Tim is of the view that we should be looking to reduce empire building and scaling down the economy - before all that is left are a couple of pyramids, reference the Egyptian and Mayan empires that used up all their natural resources, literally eating themselves out of house and home so as to build their monumental pyramids. But, being in the Army, he tends to keep such thoughts to himself.

DOES THE UK HAVE A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION - OR EFFECTIVE REMEDIES

The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified and consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources, statutes, and judge-made case law and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions. The lack of a single source of reference document means that the law is open to all kinds of interpretation and vagaries - and that basically, the Courts can make it up as they go along, and Parliament can also strike out or impose laws, often in denial of the rights of the citizen. It is a wholly unsatisfactory system that many believe is open to abuse, such as when Oliver Cromwell defeated the Royalists with his Roundheads. Many reformists believe that the sooner the UK has a solid Written Constitution, the better.

As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and "constitutional law", the UK Parliament can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament, and thus has the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. No Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.

LAW AND INJUSTICE

English law (which applies in England and Wales and Northern Ireland) is based on common-law principles. The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgments of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases (stare decisis).

The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.

PARLIAMENT - The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, it is also known as the 'heart of British politics'.