Geoff Hoon, no doubt irked by the Lords’ ongoing resistance to the totalitarian tendencies of ZANU Labour wants to put a stop to such nonsense.
Britain’s peers would be legally forbidden from challenging controversial legislation, such as the ID cards Bill and the ban on glorifying terrorism, under a radical constitutional reform proposed by Geoff Hoon.In today’s Independent on Sunday, the Leader of the Commons says the time has come to settle once and for all the battle of wills between MPs and peers.
The breakdown of the tradition that the Lords do not block manifesto commitments, known as the Salisbury Convention, means Britain has entered “uncharted constitutional waters”, he says.
Indeed? As in the way the ZANU Labour dictionary defines “voluntary” is taking the English language into uncharted lingustic waters? What a weaselly little shit this man is. Well, I guess that after sucking up to the biggest weaselly shit of the lot, some of the amoral behaviour is bound to rub off sooner or later.
The Salisbury convention whereby peers honour manifesto commitments would be fine and dandy if the government led by example and did likewise. One recent defeat in the Lords – that of the ID Cards Bill – was simply a matter of holding the government to its manifesto pledge. That is hardly breaking the Salisbury convention. Well, I guess, it is for ZANU Labour who, no doubt have a similarly twisted definition for the Salisbury convention as they do for “voluntary” and “respect”. Voluntary ID cards would be left to the decision of the people who wanted them. That’s what voluntary means; without coercion, by one’s own volition, through choice. Forcing passport holders to sign up to the Stasi database upon renewal is only “voluntary” if you are a blinkered ZANU Labour follower and are not prepared to dig out your dictionary and look up the proper definition – the one the English speaking world uses rather than the ZANU Labour Newspeak one. I don’t often use hyperbole, but evil is the only word I can find to adequately describe these people.
I can’t help wondering whether Hoon was the stand-in for the George Parr interview on Bremner Bird and Fortune yesterday… Certainly his cynical disregard for liberty and the political process is in keeping with the George Parr mindset. :dry:
“Buff” Hoon, I’m afraid, is just a despicable little shit. But what more should one expect from people for whom lying has become a way of life?
The Salisbury Convention is really a red herring – the Labour Government elected in 1945 had received 48% of the votes cast, not the miserable 35% of this government – and it’s not merely a question of a government’s ‘manifesto commitments’ (and let’s be honest, we’re still waiting for that referndum on proportional representation from 1997). It also takes into account the strength (or in this case the evident lack of it) of the popular mandate, ie what proportion of the electorate voted for the government. When two thirds of voters voted against the government, the Salisbury Convention could never be legitimately held to apply.
The real ‘uncharted waters’ here are the election of a government with a substantial majority based on a significant minority of votes cast. It is worrying in the extreme that what most exercises that organ which passes for Buffoon’s mind is how to further extend the untramelled power of the executive; how to legislate away all opposition; how to turn Parliament into a mere rubber stamp.
Did I say he was a despicable little shit? My apologies to any genuine turds out there – I did not intend to insult you by the association.
Longrider replies: On the Salisbury convention, you are quite right. I was being deliberately simplistic to make the point that government is engaging in double standards – but then, what’s new?
Once you get into the detail, it gets even worse. 😉