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Addicted to legislation - for The Inverness Courier
THIS has been an interesting week in Westminster. Not only did the new James Bond film premiere at the Leicester Square Odeon but the annual Queen’s Speech and the official opening of parliament has set a fresh agenda for the next parliamentary session.
While I have not yet seen the Bond, I have now seen Tony Blair’s last Queen’s speech before he leaves office. This one bears all the hallmarks of Mr Blair’s time in office — a vast amount of legislation, much of it not well thought through, with
spin and positioning prevailing over substance.
And there is indeed much legislation. Twenty-two definite new bills have been announced, with two possible bills, four draft bills and three which have been carried over from the previous session. Perhaps Labour's addiction to legislation has gotten out of hand.
As Ming Campbell said in at the beginning of his time in office, Mr Blair promised “education, education, education” but all we’ve seen is legislation, legislation, legislation. Since 1997 we have had an astonishing 365 acts of parliament running to a total of 114,000 pages of new law.
Sadly more and more of this legislation increasingly encroaches on our civil liberties. I believe it’s time to start repealing unnecessary legislation — and the ID card should be the first to go.
Apart from further encroachment on our freedoms, what else does the government plan to do? Firstly, the Pensions Bill will have a direct influence on all of us. Everyone that is, except those pensioners who are struggling with poverty today.
The government plans to restore the link between the basic state pensions and earnings by 2015 and raise the retirement age to 68 over the next 50 years. The UK pensions system is in desperate need of reform, but I have real concerns about the Government's approach.
There should be an increase in the retirement age enacted over a suitable time frame but this must be matched with an increase in the state pension to compensate for the extra years spent working.
At long last, the disastrous Child Support Agency is set to undergo yet more reform to tackle the backlog of unpaid child support and to correct some of the major flaws made public in the Henshaw Review. All this comes as too little too late. Throwing yet more legislation at the CSA, the Government again misses the point that the Child Support Agency has totally failed and needs to be scrapped.
As party spokesman on work and pensions, I will be working hard to amend and improve the Pensions Bill, Welfare Reform Bill and Child Support Agency reform, so we can have a simpler, fairer, welfare system in this country that gives genuine support to those who need it and encourages people to take responsibility for their own lives.
Posted on: 21/11/2006
