A Couple Hours With the Lord Chancellor

Scott had a little chat today with the Lord Chancellor of England, along with 200 of his friends and intimates who also attended a lecture at the London School of Economics. The Lord Chancellor historically was one of the most powerful positions in the British government, serving as chief of the judiciary, a member of the Cabinet and speaker of the House of Commons. (Apparently, separation of powers hadn't been invented yet.) The most famous lord chancellor ever is probably Thomas More, whose head Henry VIII removed when More didn't support his break with the Roman Catholic church. The position is less important since reforms in 2005, and even after attending the lecture, I'm still a little unclear as to the positions exact functions. According to the current chancelor, Jack Straw, the position is "steward of the Constitution" which doesn't help much considering that the British Constitution is an unwritten document which gets interpreted by parliament as times dictate. I learned several interteresting facts at the lecture, notably that Straw is the first "commoner" to occupy the office since 1591, the last year Christopher Hatton was chancellor for Elizabeth I. I also learned that Britain has an incredibly well funded legal defense system (for which the Lord Chancellor is responsible), funded at f38 per capita (compared with f4 in Germany and f3 in France.) This is quite lucrative for some attorneys who specialize in defending the indigent, producing more than f1 million per year in revene. The Lord Chancellor went out of his way to make it clear this practice is nearing its end! Lastly, the lecture ended on a fascinating note. In response to a question, the Lord Chancellor strongly defended the use of closed circuit television and mandatory DNA registration as a necessary protection of Britons. In a most un-British way, he was nearly shouted out of the room by the assembled audience of lawyers and law and political science-students!