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Anyone read this yet? Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill - which gives arbitrary powers for Ministers by Order, no exempt Acts, no full public consultation no detailed scrutiny by Parliament.

A Government Minister will be able to create arbitrary laws and regulations which carry a criminal penalty, but without proper Paliamentary approval. If passed as it stands, it would give a Government Minister the power to amend or repeal or replace any or all legislation, and even Common Law.

This is extremely worrying. Welcome to Tony's Totalitarian Regime.


I urge you all to find your MP here and write to him/her and ask the following questions:

Why does the Bill change the current procedures for the enactment into our law of EU legislation?

What guarantees are there that the Bill could not be used to bring in the EU Constitution by the back door?

If the Bill is just a simplifying measure for deregulation, why does it contain no requirement for any orders to actually reduce the amounts of red tape and regulation?

Why does the Bill give the power to create new law, including new criminal offences, to the Law Commissions, which are unelected quangos appointed by Ministers?

If the Law Commissions are supposed to be staffed by impartial technical experts, why are Ministers taking the power to amend the recommendations of the Law Commissions before they are fast-tracked into legislation?

Why do protections in the Bill against new laws to permit forcible entry, search, seizure or compelling people to give evidence not apply to reforms recommended by the unelected Law Commissions appointed by Ministers?

If the Bill allows Ministers to ?amend, repeal or replace legislation in any way that an Act might?, does this not give them an unlimited power to ignore a democratic Parliament and legislate by decree?

If the Bill is so sensible, why has Parliament used a different way of making laws for 700 years?

If the Bill is meant to retain Parliament?s ability to scrutinise regulations and regulators, why does it not contain a provision for automatic sunset clauses in orders issued under the Bill?

If the Bill gives Ministers powers to charge fees by decree, is that not a charter to bring in unlimited stealth taxes?

As the Bill permits an order to be made by a Minister under the Bill provided its effect is ?proportionate? to his ?policy objective?, since when in our history as a democratic country has a Government Minister?s ?policy objective? directly received the force of law?

What guarantees are there that the Bill could not be used to bring in ID Cards by the back door?

Why does the Bill give the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly a veto over Ministers? power to change the law which it denies to English MPs?

And remember that you need to have a lawful or technical answer and not an assurance.

Why it concerns me and why it should concer you

It's a lesson Tone and friends have learned from across the pond. You cite "security" and "terrorist threat" and claim that these temporary powers would never be used. Never thought I'd see the day when a Labour government would be this right wing and reactionary.

Given the dumbing down of newspapers and television news, I'm not surprised this hasn't created an outcry. Sleepwalking just about sums it up.

Hi Jaques,

This government have enacted more legislation than any other in history. Now they want to do without the lengthy process that this entails.The "Abolition of Parliament Bill" does just this and allows the state to speed up the march of legislation dramatically.

The Times article in your link, envisaged the perfect society for an authoritarian state: a place where everything is illegal thus giving the state the power to arrest and incarcerate anyone at any time. Insidiously we are edging towards such a society.

Terroism is what every authoritarian state needs to stay in power!

Mike Freeman

Totally agree Mike. Its been done before of course (well very similar legislation) and it was called The Enabling Act and passed as law in Germany on the 23rd March 1933 and the rest as they say is history and we all know what happened.......

Well we all know that teflon Tone is a Dictator and is power mad, and now apparently he has remarked that he didnt actually say that he would be standing down before the next election which means the PM in waiting Gordon Brown could be waiting longer than he thinks, what a pathetic load of old shite they all are.