Originally Posted by
PAXboy
However, it does not really matter, as the rest of the world already knows we are banana republic.
Forgive me, but that's simply hyperbole. Although these things aren't exact and to perhaps to some extent gimmicky, the UK is 14th on the 2019 Democracy Index (higher than France, the US, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Japan, for example) and holds the same place on the Democracy Ranking (a different organisation doing the assessment). The UK ranks highly on the Freedom Index (94 points out of 100; equal with Germany, ahead of France and the US again) and is 12th in the Rule of Law Index.
We're not perfect, but we're not a banana republic by a very long way.