Save Parliament

[Annie]

I know a lot of you are concerned about the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, so have a look at this.

Regards

Annie


From: "Save Parliament" <info@saveparliament.org.uk> Add to Address Book
To: "Annie Machon" <anniemachon@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Save Parliament - Write to your local paper!
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 12:01:51 +0100

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the third Save Parliament Bulletin, and if you've only just
joined us, welcome to the campaign! We're launching our media campaign
this week, and we need your help! We're working on getting national
coverage, but we've got something you can do to help us out.

We would like you all to write a letter about the Bill to the editor of
your local newspaper. If you want some hints on what to write, we've
included a sample letter in this bulletin, which you can find below. It's
probably best not to just copy it verbatim, but instead to modify it to
match your own style, to reflect your local situation, or to mention
the views of your local MP.

You can find the address of your local newspaper by visiting this page:
http://www.nsdatabase.co.uk/locationsearch.cfm. Send your letter to the
editor, and be sure to mark it "for publication".

Good luck, and if you get your letter published, we'd appreciate it if
you'd send a scanned copy (or URL) to info@saveparliament.org.uk.
Please also let us know if you get any followup from your letter.

cheers,

James Smith
Director, Save Parliament
http://www.saveparliament.org.uk

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Sample letter
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Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you concerning an extremely disturbing government
proposal that is currently going through Parliament. It is the Legislative
and Regulatory Reform Bill, and it threatens to destroy 700 years of
democracy in the UK. It gives government Ministers the power to change or
replace any law, without requiring detailed scrutiny by Parliament. The
Bill can be used to change any existing legislation, from Magna Carta
to the Local Government Acts. The Bill can even be applied to itself!

The Government are pushing this Bill through under the guise of
deregulation, when in fact the bill not only lacks any mention of
deregulation, but also lacks any meaningful safeguards to prevent abuse. The only
protection we have is that the government have stated that they will not
misuse it. This is not enough.

I'd like to invite your readers to consider the comments of Oliver
Heald MP, who is leading opposition against the Bill; "There is no better
time than now for concerned citizens to write to their Member of
Parliament, protesting about this Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. what
the Government has come up with goes way beyond what is needed. The
Government say they have 'wider ambitions'. We wonder what they are".

Already the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are set to oppose the
bill, as are the Green Party. The Save Parliament campaign (
www.saveparliament.org.uk ) now has over 1,700 members of the public who have
signed up to voice their objections, and more are joining every day from
all over the country. I would like to urge your readers to join the
campaign, and write to their local MP as soon as possible.

If the government do not amend the Bill to limit its power, it cannot
be allowed to become law. It is simply too wide-ranging, and gives both
this and all future governments far too much power, undermining
Parliament and threatening the very foundation of democracy in the UK.

Yours Faithfully,

<name>

[orestes]

I wrote a letter to my MP (Geoffrey Robinson for God's sake) about this, but I saw an article saying that 'the government had been defeated', or had 'changed their mind' or something. Is the bill still live or have they killed it?

[Andrew Johnson]

Hi,

I also wrote to my MP. Below is the latest, I've heard, but expect it to be resurrected pretty soon - it's a significant part of the agenda.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-2133349,00.html

Critics force climbdown on Bill for a 'British dictatorship'
By Sam Coates, Political Correspondent





THE Government has backed down over the so-called “dictatorship Bill”, which would have allowed ministers to bypass parliamentary scrutiny.

This comes after trenchant criticism from a cross-party group of MPs, peers and senior lawyers, including six Cambridge law professors, who gave warning in a letter to The Times that it would allow the Government to rewrite almost any Act.

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, which the Government said would help to cut red tape, also provoked a grassroots revolt when nearly 2,000 people signed up to a Save Parliament campaign.

Jim Murphy, the Cabinet Office Minister responsible for the Bill, has now indicated that he will amend the legislation to make clear “beyond doubt” that it will be used only to tackle red tape, known as better regulation.

The Bill was drawn up to give ministers the power to reform legislation or introduce recommendations of the Law Commission, which suggests updates to the law, “by order”. Select committees would be allowed to scrutinise the orders and suggest changes, but they would not go to the floor of the Commons. Ministers would have the final say in deciding whether the order became law.

Mr Murphy promised yesterday to give a statutory veto to the regulatory reform select committees in the Commons and Lords, allowing them to block fast-track changes. Some critics say that this does not go far enough.

Tony Blair had been warned by Lord Grocott, the Government’s Chief Whip in the Lords, that he had serious doubts that the Bill would get through. In a letter, sent to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and copied to the Prime Minister, he said: “I am concerned that by failing to consider further changes we are missing our last opportunity to avoid likely defeats.”

The Commons Procedure Committee, which makes recommendations on parliamentary practice, was scathing about the Bill. It said: “This Bill, as currently drafted, tips the balance between the Executive and Parliament too far in the Government’s favour.”

In a letter to Andrew Miller, the Labour MP who chaired a committee that raised concerns about the legislation, Mr Murphy said he wanted to remove any cause for concern. “In its current form, the Bill has caused some people to voice concern about the order making power of the Bill,” he wrote.

“I am writing to you today to confirm my intention to move this debate on to the real agenda of better regulation and to remove any cause for concern that the Bill could ever be used for anything other than achieving our better-regulation objectives. Safeguards already in the Bill ensure that the order making power cannot be used to remove necessary protections, rights or freedoms.”

Opponents said that the changes might not be enough. David Heath, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the Commons, said: “At the very least we need to see a drastic reduction in the scope of the Bill, measures to prevent ministers manipulating Law Commission proposals, and the safeguard of a genuine parliamentary veto that can be exercised by opposition parties to block fast-track procedures.”

Jonathan Djanogly, the Conservative Shadow Solicitor-General, said: “We do still need to see the detail of the amendments, which the minister says he will be making. If the amendments do introduce the protections which Mr Murphy has promised, then this is a major victory for freedom and parliamentary democracy.”

POWER BASE

Six Cambridge law professors said in a letter to The Times that the Bill would have made it possible for the Government, by delegated legislation, to do the following:




Create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred, punishable with two years' imprisonment


Curtail or abolish jury trial


Permit the Home Secretary to place citizens under house arrest


Allow the Prime Minister to sack judges


Rewrite the law on nationality and immigration


“Reform” Magna Carta (or what remains of it)

[Frazzel]

now that theres lots of local elections coming up i urge everyone not to vote new labour (or conservative or bnp) and lets make sure people dont forget that new labour will try to get this bill through again in a different form.
we need some kind of media publicity stunt to highlight this evil bill.