Too Busy For Words - the PaulWay Blog

I just read about the "Legislative and Regularly Reform Bill" proposed in the British Parliament. This is being called the "Abolition of Parliament Bill" or the "Doomsday Bill", because it basically means that Ministers can add, amend and delete legislation as they see fit, as long as it passes a few minor requirements (e.g. a new crime can't be punished by more than two years imprisonment - less than that is OK) and, basically, the Minister proposing it says that they think it's a good idea. Very little of the requirements apply to amendments, and the fact that the Bill applies to itself means that they can immediately alter it to suit as soon as it's passed. About the only assurance the British population has that Ministers won't be abolishing speeding fines if they get caught speeding, or punishing calling them names with eighteen months in jail, is that Jim Murphy, the Minister proposing the Bill, says that they reckon they won't do anything wrong.

It's just so freaking wrong in so many ways I'm at a loss to choose which one to rant over. It's so amazingly scary that anyone could even think of proposing this, let alone actually get it into Parliament, that I literally tremble in the core of my being. They're only allowing one hour of debate on it, too - it's being raced through Parliament. They're justifying it in terms of trying to deregulate business, which is not only transparent but is nonsensical - when business is unregulated, it's the people that suffer. The fact that most Ministers are not trained in law and have little idea of how to actually construct a good law, so that it sits neatly with the other laws and doesn't make things more difficult for everyone, is just the icing on the cake.

All I can think of is that there are lobby groups in big business in Britain that are laughing their heads off... And, if it gets passed, the British population won't know what hit them...