Jonathan Sumption
The Guardian
What holds, and what fails, under pressure, standards and accountability.
Jonathan Sumption is a former Supreme Court Justice known for his thoughtful and principled perspectives on law and governance. This interview reveals his commitment to protecting individual freedoms and his critical view of government overreach during crises.
“Exactly. I think that, I mean, the Prime Minister doesn't accept that there was a breach of the rules, and actually I don't think that there was because the rules don't say you can't go out of your house. They say you can't go out without a reasonable excuse.”
“The thing about Keith Joseph is that he was a man of huge political intellectual curiosity. He liked talking to people who didn't necessarily agree with him politically. He had one of the most open minds of any politician that I ever met.”
“To be one, I think we have made serious mistakes, but whether I am right or wrong about that, it seems to me to be important to ascertain with care whether we've made mistakes and what they are, because this isn't going to be the last pandemic by any means. Indeed, it's at the milder end of the scale.”
“Well, there are pluses and minuses in doing any job like that at my age. It would be very time consuming. One would have to put one's back into it. It would mean there would be many other things I like doing which I can't do. If I were asked to do it, I would certainly do it.”
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson — The Jonathan Sumption One
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