…….In an almost deserted chamber, the Government proposed an extraordinary Bill that will drastically reduce parliamentary discussion of future laws, a Bill some constitutional experts are already calling “the Abolition of Parliament Bill”.
Carrying ID cards could be made compulsory, smoking in one’s own home could be outlawed and the definition of terrorism altered to make ordinary political protest punishable by life imprisonment. Nor will the Human Rights Act save us since the Bill makes no exception for it.
The Bill gives ministers the power to ‘amend repeal or replace’ any law passed by Parliament without consulting Parliament. The only limitations are that new crimes cannot be created if the penalty is greater than two years in prison and that it cannot increase taxation. But any other law can be changed, no matter how important.
The Bill, bizarrely, even applies to itself, so that ministers could propose orders to remove the limitations about two-year sentences and taxation. It also includes a few desultory questions (along the lines of “am I satisfied that I am doing the right thing?”) that ministers have to ask themselves before proceeding, all drafted subjectively so that court challenges will fail, no matter how preposterous the minister’s answer.
The potential consequences if this bill gets through parliament are disastrous and an affront to the values of democracy, yet most people know absolutely nothing about it.
The bill can be found in full here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmbills/111/06111.1-4.html#j001
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334161.html?c=on#comments
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-2049791,00.html
If our local MPs resist it, we have a chance of fighting it.
I have written to my M.P about this.
I suggest that everyone reading this do the same. Please follow the link below, it will take you 2 mins.
http://www.Parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alms.cfm
