Thursday, 27 March 2008
Something Wicked This Way Comes
A number of bloggers have picked up on the news this morning that the excellent Spy Blog has spotted a turd in the Parliamentary waterpipe:
We were going to comment initially on the Draft Governance of Britain - Constitutional Renewal Bill (.pdf 98 pages) regarding the welcome plan to repeal sections 132 to 138 of the Serious Organised Crime Act 2005, which has chilled free speech and freedom of assembly in the over large Designated Area around Parliament Square and Millbank and Whitehall etc. - see the Parliament Protest blog
This repeal appears prominently as Part 1 Clause 1 of the draft Bill, however, any joy at this proposed return to the status quo ante, is marred by Part 6 of the Bill,
It looks as if we will have to again go through all the fuss and lobbying that we saw over the wretched Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, the previous attempt by this Labour Government to neuter Parliament by Order of a Minister.
Part 6FINAL PROVISION
43 Power to make consequential provision
(1) A Minister of the Crown, or two or more Ministers of the Crown acting jointly, may by order make such provision as the Minister or Ministers consider appropriate in consequence of this Act.
(2) An order under subsection (1) may --
(a) amend, repeal or revoke any provision made by or an Act;
(b) include transitional or saving provision.
This was Labour's shifty plan to allow Ministers to overrule Parliamentary legislation by executive fiat. (A good and quick summary of the dangers of this Bill is available at the "Save Parliament!" website.) As Spy Blog rightly notes:
The abuse of the catch all, excessively broad wording "amend, repeal or revoke any provision made by or an Act" means that even the Constitutional Acts like Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689, Habeas Corpus, the European Communities Act, the Human Rights Act, the Civil Contingencies Act etc. can all be repealed or amended without the need for a full debate, or for new Primary Legislation, simply by Order of a Minister.
It's worth repeating that for emphasis, in case your eyes glazed over at all that Parliamentese: this provision would allow any Minister to revoke any provision of any Act of Parliament by passing a Statutory Instrument - which would require about 40 minutes' debate time and 21 Government MPs present to form a majority, if it even made it to the floor of the Commons at all. [But see update, below]
The original Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 at least had some safeguards built in to prevent wholesale abuse of this extraordinary power - albeit rather watery and insufficient ones - that were added partly as a result of the outcry last time this sinister nonsense was mooted. These seem to have disappeared from the new version of the legislation.
There will be much more on this in the next few days, I suspect, but it's clear: they're at it again. If this is passed, you might as well pack up the entire Commons for all the fucking power they will have left. But who will fight for a devalued Parliament this time round?
UPDATE: It may not be quite as bad as I've painted it. If so, good. But keep watching the skies!...
Labels: Civil liberties, Liars, Nu Lab
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What a jaw-droppingly outrageous manoeuvre, even for this shower of Ministerial pricks. A letter to one's MP is called for, I think - not least to ask what the fuck they think they're going to be for if this is enacted. Bring on the General Election!
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