From: word_chemist@hotmail.com   
      
   Letters to the Editor   
      
   The TimesFebruary 16, 2006   
      
      
   Legislative reform   
      
      
   Sir, Clause one of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (Comment, Feb   
   15) provides that: "A Minister of the Crown may by order make provision for   
   either or both of the following purposes - a) reforming legislation; b)   
   implementing recommendations of any one or more of the United Kingdom Law   
   Commissions, with or without changes."   
   This has been presented as a simple measure "streamlining" the Regulatory   
   Reform Act 2001, by which, to help industry, the Government can reduce red   
   tape by amending the Acts of Parliament that wove it. But it goes much   
   further: if passed, the Government could rewrite almost any Act and, in some   
   cases, enact new laws that at present only Parliament can make.   
      
      
   The Bill subjects this drastic power to limits, but these are few and weak.   
   If enacted as it stands, we believe the Bill would make it possible for the   
   Government, by delegated legislation, to do (inter alia) the following:   
   create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred, punishable with two   
   years' imprisonment;   
   curtail or abolish jury trial;   
   permit the Home Secretary to place citizens under house arrest;   
   allow the Prime Minister to sack judges;   
   rewrite the law on nationality and immigration;   
   "reform" Magna Carta (or what remains of it).   
   It would, in short, create a major shift of power within the state, which in   
   other countries would require an amendment to the constitution; and one in   
   which the winner would be the executive, and the loser Parliament.   
   David Howarth, MP for Cambridge, made this point at the Second Reading of   
   the Bill last week. We hope that other MPs, on all sides of the House, will   
   recognise the dangers of what is being proposed before it is too late.   
   PROFESSOR J. R. SPENCER, QC   
   PROFESSOR SIR JOHN BAKER, QC   
   PROFESSOR DAVID FELDMAN   
   PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER FORSYTH   
   PROFESSOR DAVID IBBETSON   
   PROFESSOR SIR DAVID WILLIAMS, QC   
   Law Faculty,   
   University of Cambridge   
      
   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2042165,00.html   
      
   ROBBIE   
   A lefty says: 'huh?'   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)