Sorry for not posting for a very long time. I’ve been having problems writing or doing many things that take any sort of time and concentration. Life and all. For those who don’t spend their days (and nights) following events in this country and elsewhere and looking at the worst that will happen, events have happened and the worst will be very bad indeed. The government successfully voting through a permeant government majority on EVERY parliamentary committee and giving the government control over every oversight committee objection to its actions is nothing compared to the monstrous abuse of the other vote they just won. I’ll talk about ‘The Great Brexit Power Grab’, also called the Great Repeal Bill. A piece of legislation that is described as being vital to the Brexit process, to transfer current Eu legislation into UK law as part of leaving the EU. It will prevent Chaos we are told, without it there will be confusion. Having been in the Eu for decades, parliament after parliament has added Eu laws into the British legal code without them being actual British laws, which means once Brexit happens and we have jumped off that cliff a huge number of laws in our current legal system will no longer apply. Hence the need to add them as British laws. And along came the so called Great Repeal Bill, to do just that. Nothing to worry about citizens, just some minor scrutiny of those EU laws and then they will be proper British laws rather than those dirty European laws. Because we don’t want no dirty European laws coming over here and taking jobs from British laws. Do we ? But in keeping with the character of the Tory party and it’s ongoing leadership charging headlong into some sort of Dystopian police state, the Great Repeal Bill does a lot more than just make those nasty EU laws into nice British laws. Just like the Government has given itself and the security services power after power, to remove privacy from the population, to control them, spy on them and in the end make them less than human as only the rich retain the protection of human rights because only the rich can afford to be human in the new Tory world. Tucked away in the Great Power Grab Bill are notes and sections that are (and have rightly been called) terrifying and the end of democracy. Firstly the purpose of the bill is described as implementing the with drawl agreement over British Law, but it’s authority is in effect whether or not the Brexit process is ratified. Or to put it another way, it comes into effect and has power over every area of Brexit, no matter what form Brexit takes or doesn’t take. Even if Brexit is not ratified, supported by the vote of UK MPs or the votes of the EU 27, the bill still gives the government total power over everything that isn’t taxation, criminal law or human rights, even where a law is British and not EU. The ‘Brexit’ as worded gives the government power over every law, Brexit or not that doesn’t affect tax, crime or human rights. Except that last one must be taken with a huge pinch of salt given President Mays headlong drive to remove the UK from the European human rights act (which Britain helped draft many years ago) and replace it with a British bill of rights, many of which are actually provisional rather than permanent rights. Secondly the Great Power Grab Bill contains the provision that using its authority, any other regulations bought in to make changes deemed necessary for Brexit (no matter what form that takes or doesn’t take) can be bought into power by the government alone and do not require parliamentary approval. Meaning laws that can in any way be related to Brexit (before, or after) can be passed without our MPs getting a vote on them. So unless a new law is tax, crime or human rights (for those considered human) the Great Power grab says the government can pass that law without needing parliamentary approval, which removes both parliament and the lords from the process of British law unless its Tax (the chancellors remit), crime (the home secretary) or the rights of those rich enough to be classed as human (and MPs or members of the Lords). In one step the entire democratic process is sidestepped for most British law and the MPs are cut out of the process. For every law that isn’t tax, crime or being rich, every law, every bill, every piece of legislation. It renders MPs all but powerless except in a limited number of cases since it removes their ability to vote on most British laws. At the best of times our British MPs are a bunch of self serving, money and power grabing scum, but they can still be pushed into doing the right thing by the public and their constituents. This removes even that since telling your MP how much you oppose that new law that says the security services can plant cameras in your house to monitor everything you say and do and you go to prison if you refuse or block them does nothing, your MP gets no vote on the national security, monitoring of extremist homes law. Thirdly. The Great Power Grab Bill allows individual ministers to changes to existing legislation that the Minister considers appropriate giving the Brexit process (or lack thereof) WITHOUT REQUIRING PARLIAMENTORY APPROVAL. Not only can the government as an entity write and pass laws that Parliament cannot vote on, but ministers within the government can make changes to laws (presumably with some vague justification to the relevant ministry) without MPs voting on those changes. Can you imagine what the DWP can AND WILL do with this power, every cruelty they have forced upon the poor, the disabled and the unemployed will be as nothing compared to what will come once the Minister for Work and Pensions has the power to actually rewrite laws to support his actions and the actions of the oppressive, cruel and uncaring department under his power. There will be no going to court to oppose the DWP, it’s cruelty will literally become law. And every other government ministry will be the same, the very protection of law will be removed from all except those rich enough to protect themselves or who happen to be the corporations or old school chums of the Tory leaders. You will have NO protection under law because a Minister has the power to amend any law to rewrite the bit that is protecting you. Does the thought of that frighten you. It should. But still a majority of our MPs voted FOR this monstrous Tyranny. Fourth. Clause 9 of the Great Power Grab Bill while vaguely worded as usual, grants a broad-brush stroke of powers which include the ability to modify OR REMOVE COMPLETELY what few limits on power are contained in Great Power Grab Bill. So that restriction on not being able to be used on Tax laws, criminal laws or being rich enough to be granted human status laws, those can be written out of existence by the authority contained in the bill they are supposed to restrict. Along with the time limits where some of the powers are supposed to end on the day we formally leave the EU and the others two years after that date. The bill grants the government the authority to remove those restrictions and limits and to continue using the power of this bill to enact a Tyranny for as long as they like. And such a change does NOT need a vote since under the powers of the act it can be done by the government without requiring a vote in parliament. An individual minister can grant himself or herself dictatorial authority without limit of time or constraint of law simply by using the powers this bill gives them to remove what few limitations the bill contains. This isn’t democracy, this is a stake through the heart of democracy, this is nailing shut the coffin of the tattered shreds of British democracy, with a nail gun! Three hundred and Twenty Six of our MPs voted for bill. Some bleated about voting against it later if changes weren’t made, others abstained rather than vote against it. Weasel words, pitiful excuses. Any man or woman who voted for this has placed party loyalty of personal greed before the very existence of democracy in this country of ours. Country of ours. An old fashioned way of speaking, it marks my age and the generation I went to school with. Because this country isn’t ours, it hasn’t been for a very long time, not unless you are rich enough to really own part of it. For the rest of us its isn’t our country, we don’t own it, we just pay money for little bits of it that are taken away from us when someone with power wants to. But this bill, this doesn’t just confirm that this isn’t our country, it shows that this isn’t our law, our rights, our lives. The government will control everything, there will be no law, no democracy, nothing to hold them back. They will own not just the country, but every man, woman and child in it. Serfs, chattels, granted some privilege at the indulgence of our lords and masters but constantly in fear that it could be taken away. Because there will be no law to protect us, no rights, the government will have total power. We will, in fact, be back to the days where the power of the king was total, before the first attempts at rights for people not the king, back before the Magna Carta. A majority of our ‘Democratic’ representatives voted to destroy British democracy, if not today then next week or next year. The Tories have proved again and again they are a tyranny waiting to happen, our MPs just voted them the power to make that happen. Brexit. Taking back control of the country, from the EU, from British Law, from Democracy, taking back control for a Tyranical government to dictate as it sees fit, without any possibility of opposition. Voted for by our MPs. No law should ever be passed, when the people who wrote it have to say "Trust us, we won't abuse this power". |
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