Straight talk
MARK BARNES: Challenges will be resolved only by powerful mandates to strong leaders
We surely must agree on where we are going before we agree who is best to take us there
There can be little worse than a weak leader with strong executive powers. I’ve never really understood the concept of a presidential pardon, the notion that the president can grant pardon from further justice to any person either alleged to have committed, or even found guilty, of a crime. If the case merits clemency then surely due legal process should be enabled, or required, to deal with it. US President Donald Trump occasionally, it seems, ponders the possibility of having to pardon himself — how ridiculous is that? Why doesn’t he instead just not commit the offence now for which he will be required to be pardoned later? It further seems that world leaders, with their extensive executive powers, cannot ever decide that a course of action is simply wrong, a mistake, and that it should be reversed or stopped in its tracks? Trump’s determination to build the Wall, and May’s determination to proceed, somehow, with Brexit, are nothing less than the stubborn pursuit of an obvious ear...
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