My Take | Judges’ resignation a British-engineered charade
- The latest six-monthly report submitted to the British parliament reveals the UK government basically ordered its two judges to resign from Hong Kong’s top court
When it comes to Hong Kong, the great fear of the Americans and British is not that the city’s political and legal systems will fail, but that they will succeed.
The shock resignation of UK Supreme Court president Lord Robert Reed and vice-president Lord Patrick Hodge from the Court of Final Appeal turned out to have been engineered by the British government. Go figure!
When the pair first announced their joint resignations, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab expressed support for their decision, as if it was made all by themselves. But the latest six-monthly report submitted to the British parliament by Truss’ office inadvertently gives the game away.
Truss wrote in the report: “[F]ollowing discussions with the deputy prime minister and lord chancellor and the president of the Supreme Court, it was agreed that it is no longer tenable for serving UK judges to sit on Hong Kong’s top court … [The] political and legal situation in Hong Kong has now deteriorated beyond the point where it is acceptable for serving UK judges to take part.”
Referring to the national security law, the report continued: “Such laws are not aligned with UK values. By taking this decision, we are standing up for the principles of freedom and democracy.”