One of the more bizarre criticisms of the UK’s coalition
government was that in its latter stages, it entered a ‘zombie’ phase. In other words, for once, MPs were failing to carry out their supposed duty of rushing through poorly
drafted new laws which they have not read properly, and which have disastrous
unforeseen consequences.
It is the kind of mentality that saw Labour inventing 3,600
crimes in 11 years, and we wonder why the prisons are overflowing. Or that had
the Tory-dominated coalition mounting yet another complete reorganisation of
the NHS – something David Cameron had specifically promised not to do.
What we seem to get more and more is government by vanity
project. After all, how is a politician meant to get into the history books by
making sure the health service or public transport ran efficiently? No, they
want to be the man or woman who shook up the NHS, or built HS2.
How many times have you heard governments promising to ‘cut
red tape’? But power is so delightful, and the temptation to boss other people
around just too great to resist. Back in the nineteenth century when a
colleague demanded that Prime Minister Lord Palmerston should pass a new piece
of legislation, he replied: ‘There are too many laws already.’
Somebody once said the trouble with elections is that whoever
you vote for, the government always gets in. Whichever government wins this
time, expect a flood of new laws and regulations.
More on this from Simon Jenkins -
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/02/government-ministers-public-servants-change-reform
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