Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A rather silly piece


Quentin Letts, one of the more entertaining parliamentary correspondents, writes a rather silly piece today, remarking on how quiet the House is. "A shortage of law-making?" he asks, adding: "We should rejoice, rejoice".

Of course, there is no shortage of law-making. That would indeed be a cause for rejoicing. The reason why it is so quiet is, as Booker remarked very recently (expanded by ourselves), that so much of our legislation has been outsourced to Brussels, making our MPs effectively redundant. They have nothing to do because the EU production line is doing the work for them.

Were things otherwise, we could have the MPs debating medical devices, and demanding new laws. But that is an EU competence. They could also take a look at passenger ship safety, except that that is also an EU competence. Maybe they could discuss occupational pensions? Er … that is an EU competence. How about an oil embargo on Iran? Forget it … also an EU competence.

That so much law is made in Brussels is a major constitution issue, and one of great concern to many people. How typical it is, therefore, that we should get in the Daily Wail such a silly article, that simply trivialises the whole issue. That is the MSM for you.

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