EVEN if you are Marxist or socialist or extreme left-wing, it is difficult not to characterise the United Kingdom of Great Britain as one of the world’s most enduring democracies and, perhaps, with India, Canada and the CARICOM nations, are the world’s best defined constitutionally and politically free nations.

In terms of its place in the world, I think that, among the rich, developed nations, the choice of people to live in after the US is Britain. The reason why people gravitate to the US is a complex situation that calls for intricate, elaborate theorizing.

My own feeling is that whereas one may migrate to the UK for philosophical reasons and not economic determinism, people flock to the US for one fundamental reason and no other – economic betterment and they feel the wealthy economy of the US can provide a future for them.

The long, long history of Great Britain has made it into a special spot among the great democracies for tolerance and free speech. Karl Marx sought refuge in Great Britain and got it. The UK has a long tradition of not applying ideological criteria in accepting people who are running from persecution in their own country.

In researching the UK, one will find, along with Canada, it is the only predominately white country where you do not see the level of public racial discrimination that you find in the EU countries and Australia. Of course the US stands in a class by itself when it comes to evidence of the existence of racial injustice.

There are some unnerving moments taking place in the UK and one hopes an election change next year can halt the Americanization of political culture that is coming from the Conservative Government the past three years. By Americanization of political culture, I mean the rise of extreme right-wing populism that the Republican Party has embraced the past 10 years. There is an expanding element of this trend under the present Conservative Government in the UK

Everyone that lives in the US that I have spoken with that I have met here in Guyana, without exception, told me that I must understand that Trump did not arrive overnight from the skies and poison and divide American society. It was there lurking all the time in the Republican Party and Trump delivered the coup de grâce.

Things are happening in the UK that are worrying to those who respect the practice of democracy for centuries in the UK. These things are centred on one person – an East Indian woman who is the child of migrant parents. Her name is Suella Braverman. Until yesterday, she held one of the most important Cabinet positions in government in both theoretical and practical contexts.

What we call in Guyana, the Minister of Home Affairs, it is named in the UK as the Home Secretary. Ms. Braverman did two things last week that is unheard of in the annals of British politics and it has catapulted her into a political storm that has not been seen in modern British politics. First, she accused the London police force of being biased in how it relates to protest.

She said that the police take a tougher line with right-wing demonstrators and football fans than with left-wing protestors. She urged the police to ban the marches in sympathy with Palestine calling such activities “hate marches.” In keeping with traditional British democratic culture, the London Police Chief refused to stop the marches citing the law in which there is nothing on statute that prevents people from marching.

The London Police Chief reacted to the Home Secretary in a remarkable way that maybe you would only find in the great democracy that is the UK. First, he responded by saying that there is no basis in law to stop people from marching and secondly, there is no basis for thinking that the weekend (last weekend) march for Palestine would be a security threat.

Ms. Braverman as a minister tried to get the Police Chief to stop a protest that was seen by the London police hierarchy as political interference. Ms. Braverman resorted to another avenue to vent her feeling against the police chief. She penned a column in the Times newspaper ridiculing the police chief and demonising the marchers.

Under the British Cabinet system, all public statements by ministers have to be vetted by the PM. Ms. Braverman’s piece met with changes which she ignored and published the original item. This information was revealed by the PM’s office itself.  Political parties in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and top leaders in Ms. Braverman’s own ruling party wanted her out. The greatness of British democracy was preserved; she was removed from government service.