Reasons to be Impossible

Government : Parliament : Democracy

As well all know, liberal parliamentary democracy is the form of the dictatorship of capital - i.e. it is teh political structure that most befits a fully functional capitalist society.

So this Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill scares teh bejeesus out of me. It will give Ministers qualified powers to make primary legislation.
That is, unlike now where they can insert clauses in Bill's that hand discresion to a Minister under statute, they would be able to re-write the text of Acts almost at will (OK, only in a context of furthering policy and under due consultation, etc., but hey).

Theoretically, the Bill gives final consent to Parliament - through either a negative or affirmative procedure, but in practise it will be unlikely that a ruling party will permit any blcking resolution - and the lack of a debate means it will be hard to guage support in the house and organise opposition.

What it would mean would be simple bureaucratic government, rule by ministerial fiat. National managerialism. For all their talk of localism, this has been a government trend - power is centralised or moved to managers.

Of coruse, we all know in practise the state may do as it like - recall how the law was bent out of shape to crush the miners - but it is worrying when they begin to consider throwing off even the semblance of public democracy.

Finally, I'll adda point made by a barrister acquaintance of mine - since these powers stem from statute it would mean Judges would be able to strike down these changes to law - wouldn't that be a pretty pass?