British Parliament Considers Voting Itself into Irrelevance

The big news in Britain this week was the ban on smoking in England and Wales that the “we-know-what’s-best-for-you” crowd rammed through Parliament. A lovely piece of misdirection it was as well. The real worry is the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, which has had its second reading and is now in committee. If passed, ministers (rather than the Parliament) will be making most of Britain's laws.

The Blair government makes no bones about what it wants – it takes much too much time, according to New Labour, to pass laws democratically; all that debate, listening to the wishes of the people and such get in the way of making laws that are good for people. A single paragraph from the research report on the bill explains:

The Bill contains three distinct elements. Part 1 of the Bill introduces a wide-ranging power that potentially allows ministers to amend, repeal or replace any legislation. Part 2 of the Bill allows Ministers to establish a code of practice that may be imposed on regulators, in line with the recommendations of the Hampton Review on reducing administrative burdens; and Part 3 of the Bill introduces some measures to simplify the implementation of European Community instruments.

“ . . . allows ministers to amend, repeal or replace any legislation.” The mind boggles – did Runnymede merely host a barons and earls picnic in 1225? Was the beheading of Charles I merely an over-reaction to the hymns selected to be sung one Sunday? Did Britain stand alone against the pure evil of Nazism so that Sir Humphrey Appleby could overturn a dozen Acts of Parliament before lunch?

At the very beginning, the report states “The Government has acknowledged that the Act was ‘constitutionally ground breaking’.” One stands in awe of the understatement, which is immense even by stiff-upper-lip British standards. As a sop to those who might be a bit worried, “Jim Murphy, the Cabinet Office Minister, told the Regulatory Reform Committee that the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill would not be used to implement ‘highly controversial’ measures.” Whatever reassurance that may provide is wiped out in the very next sentence, “The Government has suggested what is controversial at one time is not necessarily controversial at another time . . . .”

TS Eliot could have been writing about this Parliament when he penned the lines, “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Editor’s Note: The Kensington Review wishes to express its gratitude to Daniel Finkelstein of The Times for his original article on this bill as well as his assistance in tracking down the report on the web.

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