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Greens attack "Abolition of Parliament" Bill

18th Mar 2006


Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is "despotism"

The Green Party conference today called for immediate action to raise public awareness of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, and to publicise Green Party opposition to it.

Proposing an emergency motion, Cllr Matt Sellwood, of Oxford Green Party, said: "The Bill threatens to shatter the very foundations of democracy in this country, allowing government ministers to create law without consulting parliament, thereby replacing a system of checks and balances - over six hundred years in the making - with despotism."

In her keynote speech yesterday, Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas said the Bill "will effectively allow government ministers to amend, repeal or replace any legislation without consulting Parliament, and even to create new offences, with penalties of up to two years in prison, without any democratic scrutiny whatsoever".

Cllr Sellwood added: "Putting the emotional language of the motion aside, this Bill is dangerous to democracy, and it is vital we oppose it, especially since neither the Conservatives nor the Lib Dems are taking a lead on this issue."

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