Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Has anyone noticed? Where is British democracy going?
Over the last couple of weeks The Times has printed two articles (the first by Daniel Finklestein, the second by David Howarth MP) concerning the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

This bill contains a proposal to give ministers the power to alter any law passed by Parliament with only two exceptions. These are that new crimes cannot be created if the penalty is greater than two years in prison, and that it cannot increase taxation.

Other than that, any law can be changed, no matter how important, and no exception is made for the Human Rights Act.

This certainly is the most bizarre Bill to emanate from Tony Blair, with drastic and far reaching consequences for us all.

I would urge you to look-up any references you can find on this Bill and contact your MP to seek his/her view. For those of you in the Westbury constituency your can contact Andrew Murrison at murrisona@parliament.uk

My closing thought is this - the media gave wide coverage to the recent debates on identity cards, smoking and terrorism. Why then has there been no front page comment on this invidious intrusion into our democracy?