An excerpt from a speech on Fixing Broken Politics delivered in May 2009 as reproduced on this blog in January 2010.
THE EU AND THE HRA
But the tragic truth today is that no matter how much we strengthen Parliament or hold government to account…
…there will still be forces at work in our country that are completely unaccountable to the people of Britain.
People and organisations that have huge power and control over our daily lives and yet which no citizen can actually get at.
Almost half of all the regulations affecting our businesses come from the EU.
And since the advent of the Human Rights Act, judges are increasingly making our laws.
The EU and the judges – neither of them accountable to British citizens – have taken too much power over issues that are contested aspects of public policy…
…and which should therefore be settled in the realm of democratic politics.
It’s no wonder people feel so disillusioned with politics and Parliament when they see so many big decisions that affect their lives being made somewhere else.
So a progressive reform agenda demands that we redistribute power from the EU to Britain and from judges to the people.
We will therefore hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, pass a law requiring a referendum to approve any further transfers of power to the EU, negotiate the return of powers, and require far more detailed scrutiny in Parliament of EU legislation, regulation and spending.
And we will introduce a British Bill of Rights to strengthen our liberties, spell out the extent and limit of rights more clearly, and ensure proper democratic accountability over the creation of any new rights.
These are the words and promises of David Cameron when in opposition. In government Cameron has:
- failed to deliver a referendum on Lisbon or the EU because he believes we are better off in
- presided over one of the most intense periods of redistributing power to the EU in our history
- broken the promise to repatriate powers from the EU
- done nothing to increase scrutiny in Parliament of EU legislation
- abandoned the British Bill of Rights
- left the discredited Human Rights Act on the statute book
To quote Cameron:
‘It’s no wonder people feel so disillusioned with politics and Parliament when they see so many big decisions that affect their lives being made somewhere else.’
Too true. And also when they are lied to by a deceitful, two faced hypocrite like him, who will say anything to achieve personal power then break those cast iron promises because he had no intention of ever honouring them. Quisling bastard.
Autonomous Mind 
Their dishonesty includes painting a new Bill of Rights as the only solution in town to the disgraceful application of the Human Rights Act. Why must everything be solved with new legislation? Strike out bad law. Reform bad law. Instead each solution rapidly becomes a vehicle in which more pernicious legislation can be slipped in. This particular problem is not caused by us lacking a new bill of rights.
We keep seeing it with attempts to grant ministers the power to change law without going to Parliament. On the one hand you could say Parliament isn’t working so let’s do something different. On the other hand it is because of these shits that Parliament isn’t doing its duty to us. Change the shits rather than change the processes.
Being in Parliament has been reduced to trumpeting new laws. The quaint idea of holding the Government to account has been greatly diminished.
No Barry, the idea of holding government to account has been eradicated.
We both hit this at the same time. Cameron is everything we feared in 2007.