Douglas Carswell's Blog

No room for radicalism without repealing super Acts

Can this supposedly radical government change much without repealing Human Rights legislation, the Equality Act and the European Communities Act?

These three sets of laws seem to constitute a set of “super rules”, which constrain the ability of any subsequent government to change public policy in key areas.  So much so, I often wonder if it is those we vote for who really get to decide much at all.

As long as these Acts remain in place, many ministers are tied in by requirements to follow departmental advice.  Hemmed in by the need to follow legal advice, one might actually forget that ministers were elected to Parliament in order to decide what the law is - not slavishly follow what their departmental lawyers think it should be.  I can't help notice that many ministers sound like salesmen for established departmental policy, not authors of it.  

Back in the early 1970s, Conservative reformers talked about changing the economy. But until they were willing to countenance radical changes in trade union law, their early efforts floundered.

Over the coming Parliamentary session, count the number of times ministers imply they’d like to see change. Over new rules on EU migrants rights to claim benefit, perhaps? Or the issue of votes for prisoners, may be? Or sustainable fisheries? Or halting the bailouts to the Eurozone? The list will be long.

Yet they cannot act, they’ll imply, without overturning one, or more, of these three big Acts. Indeed.  Perhaps it is time to do so?

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