The great Bill of Rights 'con'
Sorry if someone has already posted this elsewhere but I was researching something else completely unrelated and suddenly it was staring me in the face from the screen. Obviously it wanted to be posted so here it is:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...K-law.html
There is nothing 'British' about this Bill of Rights, it will just create a Union jack draped facade to mask foreign rule.
The only rights it will preserve are the rights of the ruling euro-elite.
(23-04-2011 07:51 AM)Vortigern Wrote: [ -> ]There is nothing 'British' about this Bill of Rights, it will just create a Union jack draped facade to mask foreign rule.
The only rights it will preserve are the rights of the ruling euro-elite.
Legislative Scrutiny: Public Bodies Bill; other Bills - Human Rights Joint Committee
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...6/8603.htm
Summary
The Public Bodies Bill was published following the outcome of the Government's review of non-departmental public bodies. The Bill proposes to create a number of delegated powers by which the Government can abolish, merge, modify the constitution, functions or budgetary arrangements of a body or authorise delegation of a body's functions to a third person or body.
A number of Committees have expressed concern about the extreme breadth of the delegated powers proposed in this Bill, including the Constitution Committee and the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in the House of Lords and the Public Administration Committee in the House of Commons.
In the interests of making our own views available to both Houses before Report Stage in the House of Lords, we set out our initial concerns in this Preliminary Report about the implications of this Bill for the protection of human rights in the UK.
In our view, there are three significant human rights issues arising in the Bill.
We ask the Government to respond to our Report with a fuller explanation than so far provided of their view that adequate safeguards are included in the Bill to avoid any adverse impact on the ability of the UK to safeguard individual rights and liberties protected by domestic law and the ECHR, and to meet its international human rights obligations.
Independence and impartiality of bodies protecting and promoting human rights
A number of bodies which serve a function as part of the institutional machinery for the protection of individual rights in the UK—either rights secured in international human rights law or the common law—are included in the Bill's Schedules. These include, for example, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the Children's Commissioner, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, the Parole Board, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council and the Legal Services Commission. The inclusion of these bodies in the Schedules of this Bill may undermine their functional or perceived independence and their ability to give effect to the UK's international and domestic human rights obligations in practice.
Bodies with administrative, judicial or quasi-judicial decision making powers: the right to procedural fairness (Articles 5-6 ECHR)
The abolition or reform of other bodies which serve a particular decision making function may undermine the right to procedural fairness guaranteed by the common law, the right to a fair hearing guaranteed by Article 6 ECHR and specific procedural protections guaranteed by specific articles of the Convention (e.g. the right to liberty in Article 5 ECHR). The inclusion of these bodies in the Schedules to this Bill may undermine their functional or perceived independence (for example, endangering the independence of the Parole Board could lead to a risk of incompatibility with the right to liberty guaranteed by both the common law and Article 5 ECHR).
Despite changes to the Bill proposed by the Government in the Lords, concern remains that inclusion in the Bill continues to create a risk that the bodies listed will be subject to action by the Government to restrict their powers, subject only to subsequent judicial challenge. This in turn could undermine the perception that these bodies are capable of acting with independence from Government. Although the Government has tabled amendments proposing to delete some of these bodies from the Bill, these concerns remain.
Delegated powers and significant human rights issues
The key issue in debates so far on the Bill has been the constitutional propriety of the scope of the delegated powers proposed in the Bill, to abolish or rewrite existing statutory frameworks without full opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny. We comment on this issue only to reiterate the extent to which the excessive use of delegated powers may reduce the effectiveness of parliamentary scrutiny for human rights compatibility of proposed legislation. A skeleton bill of this nature makes human rights analysis extremely difficult, particularly where there is limited information on the proposed use of the power, the reason for the creation of the power and evidence to support its proportionality. Without greater detail on these issues it is difficult to assess whether changes to a proposed body will have a positive or negative impact on the ability of the UK to meet its international and domestic human rights obligations.
The breadth of delegation proposed in this Bill appears wholly inappropriate.
We reiterate our view that parliamentary oversight of matters which engage individual rights and liberties is particularly important, and delegated powers which may impact upon individual rights or liberties and affect the ability of the UK to meet its international obligations must be justified by the Government and accompanied by adequate safeguards to ensure that infringements do not arise because secondary legislation has been subject to inadequate parliamentary oversight.
In the light of criticism of the Bill in the House of Lords the Government has proposed changes to the Bill. In our view, these changes to the procedural arrangements in the Bill, and to the bodies listed in the Bill, do not go far enough. We remain concerned that the broad use of delegated powers in the Bill would continue to undermine the ability of Parliament to influence or prevent changes to the operation, functions and existence of bodies which may play an essential part in the machinery for the protection of individual rights and liberties in the UK.
Also
http://www.parliament.uk/business/commit...h-report1/