Bücher von Ben Greene

It was Charles II who, after the Restoration, in the abuse of Royal prerogative, first altered the established pattern of the Constitution by using stealth to insinuate the beginnings of a political dictatorship in England. This attempt changed the time-honoured Privy Council format of Executive procedure. Instead, it collectivised ministers within a secret body, hitherto unheard of in England, that would become known as 'the Cabinet.' This secrecy, and the rise of nepotistic influence within Parliament, gave rise to conditions in which political dictatorship, could emerge and take hold without effective censure and control. But this had not gone unnoticed and in 1701, Parliament introduced clauses in the Act of Settlement that would outlaw Cabinet-style government and the channels through which undue influence could operate. However, confusion arose when, soon after, the need to suspend these clauses temporarily was put into effect. Failure to resolve the issues around this confusion would, later, enable those who, while they claimed to be faithful experts of England's constitution, were secretly hostile to it, and would be experts in none other than promoting its dysfunction. In Britain, one long-term consequence of this would mean that competition between political parties would primarily be the competition with and for the abuse of power rather than its responsible exercise. Meanwhile, the influence of such 'expertise' would bring Britain into violent conflict with her colonies in North America. And not dissimilar forces a generation afterwards, while not so apparent to us in Britain today, would impose what was to be the forerunner of all other mass ideologies of the state - that of materialism itself. Joining the Labour Party as a young man with an idealistic determination to do what he could to stop another World War and remaining true to his ideals and Quaker values throughout, enabled Ben Greene to observe in a detached manner the political processes of government going on around him. His refusal to allow himself to be sucked into the Party Machine would cause a rift between himself and the Labour Party and, suspicions created by his steadfast Quaker neutrality, as WW2 broke, led him to be imprisoned under the Section 18B code. Falsely accused, and afterwards maligned to provide cover for those who had wronged him, his experiences led him on a path that would explore the English Constitution in great depth.

A maverick by nature and a colossus in stature, Ben Greene was a gentle giant who stood six feet eight inches tall and was part of the illustrious Greene clan that included the novelist Graham Greene, Hugh Greene, Director-General of the BBC 1960-1969, and Raymond Greene, Everest mountaineer and doctor. With an abiding interest in constitutional matters and a smouldering resentment following his questionable internment by the British government under the draconian 18b internment regulations during World War 2, he worked diligently on the subject for the rest of his life, but unfortunately died before the book he was planning was finished. This booklet comprising five essays by Greene, which first appeared in Candour between 1956 and 1977, with two of them re-published under the title 'The Party System and the Corruption of Parliament' in magazine format in 1989, is now made available once again. The second edition contains an introduction by his daughter, Leslie.