The Blanket Repeal Bill

13 March 2010

How can a new government undo Labour’s mistakes? It should simply repeal everything, says Matthew Parris

The Blanket Repeal of Legislation (Failure of New Labour, 1997-2010) Bill, however, will achieve euthanasia for scores of futile Acts of Parliament, by means of a single measure, preceded by just one First and Second Reading debate, one Committee Stage and one Third Reading.

The psychological case is equally strong. It is a besetting sin in all political activity, by members of every party, to approach demands for government to ‘do something’ and turn what Churchill called ‘happy thoughts’ into law, with the wrong question in mind. Politicians ask ‘why not?’, instead of the more rigorous question ‘why?’

The Blanket Repeal of Legislation (Failure of New Labour, 1997-2010) Bill will force legislators to reverse the burden of proof from ‘why not?’ to ‘why?’ Those potent forces in public administration – inertia, procrastination and a preference for a quiet life – will be harnessed to the cause of killing off rules and regulations. State busybodying will retreat unless efforts are made to keep it, instead of (as has usually been the case) advancing unless efforts are made to resist it.

It is not unheard of for particular new laws to come with a ‘sunset clause’ attached, whose effect is to terminate the measure after a set period of years, unless parliament votes to renew it. The Blanket Repeal of Legislation (Failure of New Labour, 1997-2010) Bill will bring the sun down not on a single measure, but on the whole damn lot.

It is the ultimate sunset clause.

Previous page 1 | 2

More articles from: Matthew Parris | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (1)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

DavidLondon

March 20th, 2010 11:18am Report this comment

Great idea. Unworkable, unfortunately. Some laws can just be repealed (fox-hunting, ID cards). But others would need to be unpicked - the NHS can't in practice go back immediately to the structure it had in 1997. For example, the staff employed by new bodies created since 1997 would suddenly find themselves jobless. And what would happen to laws repealed by Labour - are they meant to revive? Still, the prospect of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly being abolished overnight is an appealing one.

Post comment