Sam Fowles, Andrew Blick and Adam Wagner Chaired by Mary Hockaday

Activist lawyer Sam Fowles, human rights barrister Adam Wagner and historian Andrew Blick look at whether government is undermining democratic principles and consider how the UK maintains its reputation as a nation governed by the rule of law.

In Overruled: Our Vanishing Democracy in 8 Cases, Fowles, who worked on the case against Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament, argues it is time to fight for our liberal society. He says we are living in an age where we can no longer hold our leaders to account, the state has too much power, and the truth appears not to count. Fowles is a barrister specialising in public and international law. He has worked on many of the most important cases of the last decade including the proroguing of Parliament, the Post Office scandal and policing at Clapham Common.

In Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters Wagner says the pandemic saw our laws being radically remade by a government that exercised almost unlimited power. He says it was a wake-up call and warning of what happens when a state of emergency becomes an emergency state. Wagner says extreme measures caused constitutional chaos and we should understand what happened so we can learn lessons for the future. Wagner is the UK’s leading expert on COVID-19 laws. He was frequently called on by the media to interpret COVID-19 laws and has also acted on behalf of #ReclaimTheseStreets in their successful case against the Metropolitan Police arising out of the vigil following the murder of Sarah Everard.

In The Bonfire of the Decencies: Repairing and Restoring the British Constitution, Blick and his co-author Lord Peter Hennessy examine what has caused weaknesses in the British constitution in recent years. They say the Johnson premiership witnessed the violation of constitutional values, and they set out proposals to repair the damage and prevent a repetition. Blick is professor of politics and contemporary history and head of Department of Political Economy at Kings College, University of London. He is also editor of The Constitution in Review.

Discussions are chaired by Mary Hockaday, master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, a former controller of BBC World Service, a former head of the BBC newsroom, and a one-time foreign correspondent for the BBC and The Independent.