It’s big, but neither ambitious nor impressive: Boris Johnson’s plan for new laws
On the attack: Boris Johnson has unveiled no fewer than 38 Bills and draft Bills that will clamp down hard on the people of the UK while denying any help to deal with the crises facing us.
Boris Johnson his revealed a plan for 38 new laws in the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament, delivered in her absence by Prince Charles.
The Prince may have been mortified that it fell to him to report such a mess of half-baked ideas, attempts to dodge democracy, and above all failure to address the burning issues facing the people of the United Kingdom due to the incompetence of Johnson’s nearly three years as prime minister (and almost 12 years of Conservative failure in total).
There are no plans to address the cost-of-living crisis that is already crippling the ability of the poorest in society – millions of whom are already having to go without food on a regular basis – and threatening to harm millions more in the future as another increase in energy prices and wider-spread inflation hits families.
The government is putting forward an Energy Security Bill to “accelerate our transition to more secure, more affordable and cleaner homegrown energy supplies”. But this won’t help anybody for many years – and it includes an expansion of dirty nuclear energy that will make the UK a target for disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, and will fill the country with nuclear waste.
Johnson has claimed that his aim is to build a high-skills, high-pay economy, and that this will protect the population in the future. But he has been criticised for failing to draft an employment bill to protect workers’ rights, thereby leaving them open to exploitation.
On the other hand, there are plans to clamp down on political protest: the Public Order Bill would create a criminal offence, with a maximum sentence of 12 months, of “interfering with key national infrastructure” such as airports, railways and printing presses. This would also make it illegal to obstruct major transport works such as HS2.
Home Secretary Priti Patel says the changes are needed to deal with a “self-indulgent minority who seem to revel in causing mayhem and misery”. Doesn’t that more accurately describe the Conservative government of which she is a member?
And as part of what we’re told are seven Bills to capitalise on opportunities (if you can call them that) created by Brexit, a new Bill of Rights will show how Johnson intends to scrap your human rights and replace them with a series of privileges to be granted you by your Tory overlords, that may be changed whenever they feel like it. It has been suggested that this will not replace primary legislation, though.
A possibly-euphemistic Brexit Freedoms Bill will give the Tories power to change EU laws that were copied into the UK’s statute book after the country left the European Union – which should also ring alarm bells among members of the population who know that this signifies a removal, not expansion, of our freedoms.
Another Bill will set out the framework in which Nadine Dorries will be able to push through her undemocratic plan to privatise Channel 4 – after a government consultation found that 96 per cent of the population don’t want it to happen.
The list goes on and on – but most of the items on it are described in only vague terms. Many of them are plans to relegate certain forms of lawmaking to what’s known as “secondary legislation” – statutory instruments that are signed off by ministers rather than enjoying a democratic vote in Parliament. These may be seen as assaults on democracy and steps toward dictatorship.
You can spot these for yourself in the lists provided by news organisations, for example here, here and here.
Worst of all is the fact that this programme of attacks against you will continue, even if Boris Johnson is removed from power.
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It is now time that this totally corrupt and incompetent tory criminal Cartel were booted out of office, before they finally destroy Britain with their lies, theft, corruption and greed!