Parliamentary democracy under threat from Labour

Clause 6 could destroy Parliamentary scrutiny and democratic mechanisms.

The Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill currently being considered contains a very dangerous threat to Parliamentary democracy as we have known it for centuries. Labour’s law makers in the Department of Justice have reintroduced the dreaded “destroy Parliament” clause which was written out of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act of 2006. If this new clause 6 is written into the present Bill we could see government by decree at the behest of just one or two ministers with the power to neuter Parliament and amend , repeal, or revoke any provision made by and or an Act.

The clause has been discovered and highlighted by the excellent Spy Blog here a few excerpts from the post:

Part 6
FINAL PROVISION 43 Power to make consequential provision(1) A Minister o 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.

(3) An order under subsection (1) is to be made by statutory instrument.

(4) A statutory instrument containing an order under subsection (1) which amends or repeals a provision of an Act may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

(5) A statutory instrument containing an order under subsection (1) which does not amend or repeal a provision of an Act is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

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 can all be repealed or amended without the need for a full debate, or for new Primary Legislation, simply by Order of a Minister.

Such an Order could be passed, after a “debate” of about 40 minutes with 15 or 20 minutes for the actual voting through the lobbies, by a quorum of MPs as small as 40 i.e. only 21 Government MPs needed to rubber stamp an Order by a single Secretary of State, if the Order is even debated on the floor of the House of Commons.

It could also be rubber stamped by an even smaller committee of MPs, without any members of the public or the media present.

Such Orders are on a “take it or leave it ” basis, with no opportunity to amend them

There is nothing to prevent such an Order by a Minister amending the powers in this Constitutional Reform Bill itself, in a completely arbitrary manner.

There is no requirement, like in other countries of say, a two thirds majority rather than a simple one vote over 50 percent majority, to muck around with Constitutional Acts, something which is appalling for a draft Constitutional Renewal Bill.

This draft Bill is appalling and the whole of the blogosphere needs to unite to highlight the sweeping threats to democracy that Labour has mendaciously planted in the draft, if this Bill goes through without being amended we will see undemocratic rule by ministerial diktat according to Guido Fawkes. The likelihood is that both Hitler and Stalin had slighly better checks, controls, and scrutiny in their own dictatorships.

Dizzy Thinks says “This is something that must not be allowed to become law. This is meant to be a Parliamentary democracy, not a Government by ministerial order.”

Iain Dale adds: “Time for all good men (and bloggers) and true to come to aid of democracy, methinks.”

More blog reactions as they come in.

• Our Kingdom – and if it isn’t caught in scrutiny, it could transfer serious powers to ministers at the expense of parliament. Worth keeping an eye on.
• Longrider – One is hopeful that the committee scrutinising it does the decent thing and strangles it at birth.
• Bloggerheads – 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.
• Bishop Hill – Read the whole thing then weep!