When Rory Bremner starts talking about something, you realise that the mainstream media has picked up on a story. Last night, he explained in simplistic terms the full implications of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. I sat and watched this piece of satire stony faced. Stony faced because, it wasn’t satire, it was the stark reality if this bill gets the nod. Bremner wasn’t giving us a laugh, he was telling it like it will be and it wasn’t remotely funny.
Today, the Telegraph picks up on the story.
It contains sweeping powers for ministers to amend, repeal or replace primary and secondary legislation without asking Parliament and has earned the nickname at Westminster of the Parliamentary Scrutiny (Abolition) Bill. Some MPs claim it gives Labour powers in excess of those afforded to Henry VIII.
Yes, yes, yes, but White Rose was talking about this back at the beginning of February. Indeed, blogs have been chattering about it pretty much for the past six weeks. To be fair, the Times made mention in late February.
All the more peculiar then that the previous Thursday, in an almost deserted chamber, the Government proposed an extraordinary Bill that will drastically reduce parliamentary discussion of future laws, a Bill some constitutional experts are already calling “the Abolition of Parliament Billâ€Â.
Given the potential destruction of our parliamentary system contained in this bill, I ask myself; what took them so long to catch up?
Still, the Telegraph did pick up on the ZANU Labour guile:
Ministers have repeatedly said the Bill has safeguards to ensure that no major law can be altered by a minister.
Yeah, right. This is the “trust me†argument. They have given us no reason to trust them up until now, why should anything be different here? And, even if we could by some gargantuan stretch of credulity decide that we could trust them (putting aside the overwhelming evidence to the contrary), what about future, as yet unelected, governments?
I don’t suppose the majority of the electorate will be getting too worried about this. They don’t generally, if it doesn’t involve some sleb, these days. Sorry, excessive cynicism overload there for a moment… 
It seems only bloggers and a few aware journalists are making a fuss. And Oliver Kamm thinks bloggers have nothing to say?