If the scrappy list of proposals for new laws on benefit fraud and immigration laid out in the Queen's Speech seemed thin, the reason is that, on most of the policy areas for which Parliament used to be responsible, our laws are no longer made in Westminster but by our real government in Brussels. For every law passed by Parliament, scores are now handed down by the EU, leaving our elected MPs with ever less to do. Recently approved in Brussels, for instance, was the directive which will give "temporary workers" the same rights as permanent employees. This was vehemently opposed by our Government, because it will hit Britain harder than any other country, costing British businesses - according to the Government - £9 billion a year. But there was nothing our ministers or MPs could do to stop it. Another proposed directive, intended to ban 85 per cent of all agricultural pesticides, will so reduce farming yields, according to experts, that it will double the price of food and make it impossible for many Third World countries to export produce to the EU, putting millions of farmers and flower-growers out of work. Again, MPs have no say in the matter. Tomorrow, in the wake of the Damian Green affair, MPs will be self-importantly debating the "privileges of Parliament", oblivious that their greatest privilege, the right to make the laws which govern Britain, has now, with their consent but not ours, been all but removed from them.The Queen's Speech reveals how few decisions Parliament has left to make
Sunday, 14 December 2008
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