The FT reports:
John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, is being urged to stop ministers from rushing through legislation that will slash redundancy terms for civil servants and clear the way for a cull of up to 100,000 jobs.
Francis Maude, cabinet office minister, has asked Mr Bercow to approve a fast-track procedure for the bill to come into force by November, allowing ministers to embark on the redundancy plan this autumn.
But civil service unions have written to Mr Bercow insisting that the procedure – in which the legislation is classified as a “money bill” that cannot be amended in the House of Lords – should not be approved.
If the Speaker accepts the union’s case, the bill could be held up in the Lords, seriously disrupting a redundancy drive seen as vital in cutting the deficit. “The Speaker has an enormous amount of power over this,” said one union figure.
What won’t the Tories do to increase unemployment and reek havoc on our economy and the lives of millions?
One Response to “Abusing procedure”
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I have to say that I disagree with the use of such measures to push through legislation faster than would permit a proper and full debate of the legislation itself. The problem is that the last Government used similar techniques to push through its agenda and limit debate … and this one will have learned from the last and sadly will use the same and similar techniques.
The sadness is that by demonstrating the essential reliance of our constitution on the willingness of the participants to comply with unenforceable conventions, the last Government has taught its successors and weakened the constitution itslef – but then they believed that the ends justified the means …
But now, of course, the shoe is on the other foot …