07-11-2023, 02:26 PM
(07-11-2023, 01:27 PM)Stuart Wrote: I stopped watching the 'State Opening of Parliament' the moment the DJ in a suit didn't challenge someone who claimed we didn't have a written constitution.You are factually right, but I think this is one of those cases where oversimplified but understandable terminology is justifiable over more accurate yet opaque jargon. Speaking to a general audience, I would say that unwritten is an acceptable substitution for uncodified as the audience will understand the term and I doubt many viewers will think that all of British constitutional law is literally not written down anywhere. I've also seen the argument before that unwritten in these terms refers to a single constitutional document having not been written, rather than nothing have been written down.
He obviously did little research. Our constitution is 'uncodified', which means it's WRITTEN in many different documents. Not UNWRITTEN.
It's like I wouldn't expect a presenter to pull anybody up on using the term 'First Past the Post', even if such a term is looked down upon by political scientists for being an outright misnomer (Single-Member Plurality voting is a relative system, there is no post that candidates have to cross to win).