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Tuesday 25 June 2024

When everything is illegal

 

9 comments:

Scrobs. said...

He's absolutely spot on here!

Successive governments have to keep on creating new legal restraints, and never seem to consider or do anything to enforce the laws which are actually in place.

There must be hundreds of laws in the UK which indicate precedence, maybe the lawmakers can make a new one to do something about them en bloc...?

DiscoveredJoys said...

One of the reasons I voted Leave was that the rest of the EU (mostly) followed Napoleonic Law - only what is permitted is legal. UK Common Law operates on the basis that everything is legal unless it is prohibited.

I get the distinct impression that the developed world is sliding into the 'only what is permitted' governance... it makes the job of the Government and the security of the Elite much easier.

Sam Vega said...

Sit this man down with Starmer!

I would imagine that this clearing out of old regulatory rubbish is thankless and unglamorous, which is why it doesn't get done. And it would need to be very carefully monitored, because there are those who would cheat us by surreptitiously removing those rights that keep us free.

Remember the "Bonfire of the Quangos "? It seems the kindling was wet, and Cameron's lighter didn't work.

DiscoveredJoys said...

@Sam Vega

I would imagine that this clearing out of old regulatory rubbish is thankless and unglamorous, which is why it doesn't get done.

True enough, but there are a lot of people (The Blob, The Clerisy, The Civil Service) who get a lot of jobs and unchallengeable authority from regulation, QUANGOs, etc. They hold their privileges in place, fiercely resisting any clearing out. It's not in their interest.

Tammly said...

It seems historically that it has occurred to no one in authority, that institutions set up to regulate, say to adjudicate health and safety issues, will never ever, complete their tasks, and will continuously expand their remits. They have positions and salaries to maintain, there are ever more areas that it occurs to them to interfere in. No thought is given to the fairness to or ability of, subjects to abide by these regulations, which have the effect of strangling legitimate activity to death.

A K Haart said...

Scrobs - he is spot on. A new government could achieve a great deal by repealing laws and abolishing useless Quangos, but that's not what they want to be seen doing.

DJ - it's like a ratchet taking us towards a state where everything is forbidden or compulsory and only the powerful decide which is which on a case by case basis.

Sam - he seems to be too smart to tolerate Starmer for long. Yes clearing out old regulatory rubbish must be an unglamorous task, but it could be sold as genuine reform. Yet we know it would be opposed with a fanatical determination to defend every inch of ground.

DJ - and it's easy to underestimate how fierce and unprincipled that resistance would be.

A K Haart said...

Tammly - yes they continuously expand their remits and put considerable effort into making sure their budget is always inadequate for what they are supposed to be doing. It's a serious and destructive issue which is kept out of the public arena in favour of easy promises and fake problems.

Anonymous said...

Having read about the (un)civil service wanting Farage's head on a pike, when/if he becomes Prime Minister, I would support a motion that one in every five of the (un)civil servants be taken out and shot, unless they can justify their role.
Penseivat

A K Haart said...

Penseivat - yes, they ought to be less secure. Going after Farage during an election campaign should be automatic dismissal. It should be easier to get rid of those who delay and prevaricate merely because they don't like something.