One of the things I always promised myself about my particular corner of the t’internet would be that I always posted things relvant to the pedalling world and ther would be no bad poetry or inane references to Sylvia Plath. However, somethings always need a voice. This would be one of those things.
From Save Parliament:
The boringly-named Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is in fact a very dangerous piece of legislation. It grants any minister the ability to amend, replace, or repeal existing legislation. The frightening thing is this: they would be able to make major changes to the law without Parliament being able to examine it properly, taking away the ability of Parliament to meaningfully represent the citizens of this country.
or to put it into context:
This means that if a minister got up in a bad mood, he could decide to make laughing in public punishable by 2 years in prison by amending the Serious Organised Crime Act. Or if he was late to work, he could arbitrarily do away with speed limits by amending the Road Traffic Act.
More worryingly, the minister involved can amend any existing legislation; nothing is protected. So, as was pointed out in The Times by 6 law professors from Cambridge, a minister could abolish trial by jury, suspend habeas corpus (your right not to be arbitrarily arrested), or change any of the legislation governing the legal system.
Time to act people, my particular Westminster crony has just got the below. This is so disgustingly easy to do there are no excuses:
Click here and have your voice heard
Dear Colin Challen,
Our current government seems to be doing all in it’s power to turn this fine country into a nightmare beyond the imagination of Orwell. As with any decent democracy the right for all to have their voice heard is paramount. I can’t help but fear that the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is going to go unchallenged and it is the biggest threat to democracy yet. I would like to know if you are gouing to oppose this bill and if not your reasons why?
Yours sincerely,
Fat Lad
Please leave comments if you have any opinion on this at all