"Ooh, little bit of politics there"

[denny]

I just accidentally ran across reference to something called the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill...

"They have produced a bill which could be used to sweep away parliamentary procedure and debate on an astonishing scale."

[...] the bill could potentially allow ministers to rewrite virtually any act of parliament, permitting them, for example, to abolish jury trial, put people under house arrest, rewrite immigration law or sack judges.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,1715467,00.html

Isn't this exactly the kind of mess the EU had to drag itself out of a few years ago? Too much power in the hands of the unelected civil 'servants', and not enough in the hands of the nominally accountable elected representatives?


Discussion:
http://manyangrygerbils.typepad.com/many_angry_gerbils/2006/02/enabling_tyrann.html
http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/2006/02/legislative_and_regulatory_ref.html
http://www.outsidestory.com/home/2006/02/the_abolition_o.html
http://www.oncemore.co.uk/2006/02/legislative_and.html

The first one is definitely worth reading, despite the silly blog name. Oh, and note the point raised in at least two of those articles, that this Bill gives ministers the power to amend itself. How scary is that?

Comments

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

It's a big thing at the moment. I don't believe it will pass, for precisely that reason I do, of course, think it's right that there's been such a stink. It is, of course, rather scary that it ever came up.

[kynetik.livejournal.com]

haha, I'm writing an essay on this atm.

Yet another scary example of the increasingly Orwellian state of affiars. join ukpolitics for debate on issues like this :)

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Dear Harry Cohen,

I write in the hope of confirming that you will not be supporting the extraordinarily undemocratic measures contained within the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

It is critical to the health of democracy and the freedoms of this country that ministers, indeed any individual or group, not be able to change legislation without the direct involvement of a majority vote in parliament.

While it may be claimed that this is not the primary aim of this legislation, it is imperative that ministers not be given these powers for any reason or under any pretence.

I look forward to hearing that you will be supporting the democratic traditions of this country by opposing this bill at any further readings or votes.

Yours sincerely,

----

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

(http://www.writetothem.com/ of course)

[greenfieldsite.livejournal.com]

Hi.

Unfortunately the commentary on this issue has been quite biased at times. I think a number of people are only interested in trying to turn this to political advantage rather than looking to discuss the real merits or demerits of the bill. In particular, articles which say that the Bill gives ministers the power to amend anything are misleading or misinformed. Ministers can lay an order before Parliament, but either House has the power to prevent it taking effect. So my take on it is that if Parliament does not turn down any bad legislation then it also is partly responsible.

I can see that the Bill might lend itself to abuses if Parliament were inattentive, but in my view there are adequate safeguards against an abuse of power such as the extreme examples often put forward.

I discussed this on my LJ recently. What I wrote (including responses to comments) is not necessarily comprehensive, but fills in a few important gaps that other blogs missed out.

http://greenfieldsite.livejournal.com/3453.html

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

OMFG arrrgh! This is bad.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I think that's what I said this morning.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

I heard about this a few days ago and I couldn't believe that they'd dare do this. I haven't had the time or energy to look at it further or shout about it as my gf is still ill after 3 weeks and now I'm ill (again - I was ill in the first week when she was ill).

I really hope that the other parties and the lords swat this down unanimusly...

[murkee.livejournal.com]

Can I refer you to my pages on this topic?
http://www.murky.org/archives/current_affairs/uk_news/uk_politics/totalitarianism_bill/

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. Out of curiousity, how did you end up here?

[murkee.livejournal.com]

technorati

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I didn't realise that indexed me. I'll have to try and write something worth reading occasionally ;)

Some news

[msdemmie.livejournal.com]

I propagated this ....... here is one of the replies I got ........

CONFERENCE CALLS FOR THE REJECTION OF THE "ABOLITION OF PARLIAMENT BILL"
An emergency motion calling on Parliamentarians of all parties and both Houses to reject the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill was passed by Conference. The motion deplores proposals in the Bill which would give powers to government ministers to alter any law passed by Parliament, provided that they do not (a) create new crimes with a penalty greater than two years in prison or (b) increase taxation. Conference stated, “these proposals are a fundamental assault on deliberation and debate over proposed legislation, on parliamentary democracy, on the rule of law, and on all the democratic institutions of this country.”

http://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/agenda.html?id=644&navPage=conferenceagenda.html

Part 1 of the Bill does much more than even Henry VIII dreamed of. It gives Ministers the power to make law, alter law, repeal law, invent law, without effective parliamentary scrutiny. It allows our basic constitutional safeguards to be removed by Order in Council: electoral law, Habeas Corpus, jury trial, the Act of Union. We will not throw away centuries of parliamentary democracy. We will not throw away the traditions and safeguards of common law. Tony Blair sees a tension between modernisation and human rights. I say a truly modern Britain would strengthen and enshrine human rights, not undermine them. (Heath) [Release]

http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/vital-that-we-act-to-stop-the-erosion-of-ancient-rights-heath.html