The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

I’m ‘Enery the Eighth I am

Published by Tom

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Concern over use of 'Henry Vlll' powers to overturn acts of parliament | The Law Gazette.

It's time for every liberty-minded blogger who has retired, jaded, after the fall of Labour to return to the fray. Why? Because, in the words of Joshua Rozenberg in the Law Society Gazette last week;

The coalition’s approach to legislation is neither conservative nor liberal. That much is clear from the new Quangos (Bonfire) Bill, or the Public Bodies Bill as it is more properly called in parliament

The Bonfire of the Quangos is a notion much to be applauded. What is emphatically NOT to be applauded is that the Coalition has slipped into the Bill a provision allowing ministers to amend Acts of Parliament. Sound familiar? That's just what Labour ventured in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. And it's just as wrong. Witterings from Witney (to whom a tip of the hat) quotes from a letter he received from William Hague, Oliver Heald and Richard Benyon (his then Conservative MP) about Labour's attempt to subvert Parliament's power;

I can assure you that the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill will receive a robust opposition from my colleagues and I in Parliament. We recognise this as a devious means by which Ministers will seek to avoid the sovereignty of Parliament. It is another example of the contempt with which this Government holds Parliament and our national institutions.

Now all three gentlemen are about to support the introduction of its equivalent. The notion that this government is in any way a greater friend of liberty than the old one has been exploded. Ladies and gentlemen, to arms!

4 responses to “I’m ‘Enery the Eighth I am”

  1. SimonF Avatar
    SimonF

    As I’ve just commented at Tim Worstall’s place:
    Cui Bono. Different parties, same Sir Humphrey.
    I really can imagine a scene from Yes, Minister along the lines of ….just a tidying up exercise, Minister, nothing but administrative niceties, nothing to worry about, Minister….. in the wonderful obsequious tone that Nigel Hawthorne had when he was being most patronising.

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  2. Peter Whale Avatar
    Peter Whale

    Hey Tom its a start the Law Society Gazette. Maybe you should write a piece for them reminding them of the ideals they had when lawyers first entered the profession. Has it got a big circulation among lawyers?

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  3. Tom Paine Avatar
    Tom Paine

    I thought of you when I posted it, Peter. The Law Society Gazette is distributed to every solicitor.
    Both branches of the English legal profession have consistently opposed incursions on our liberty. I used to have links in my sidebar to the briefing papers provided by the Law Society to MPs before the enactment of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, for example. They were sound on the subject and it’s hard to imagine anyone who read them voting for it.
    However, most MPs don’t read draft laws at all. Most are far too stupid to understand them anyway. A baby-kissing contest between party hacks selected for their pliability is hardly the way to find wise men and women. With the odd honourable exception, they are their parties’ creatures and vote blindly as whipped.
    Our real beef, in many ways, is with a party system that has turned into a conspiracy against the electorate for the advancement of the political class. MPs should be reviewing legislation on its merits in our interests, not sucking up to party leaders in the hope of promotion.

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  4. Peter Whale Avatar
    Peter Whale

    Thanks for the reply Tom. In forty years of business I only came across one bad solicitor a few incompetent ones
    and a majority of good ones. Most had a high regard of right and wrong. Why do the ones who go into politics change so much from the defence of individual liberty? Once elected they seem to have a separation zone that enters their brain which allows them to have a set of values for themselves and a different set for everyone else.
    As an aside Tom of all the blogs that stopped blogging yours was the one I missed most. So glad you returned.

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Your blogger

Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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