Garters in a Twist 641


The House of Lords broke no constitutional conventions in referring back Osborne’s vindictive tax credit cuts. The Tories and their media supporters are talking utter garbage on the question. Taking Britain’s appalling “constitution” for what it is, the arcane rules of procedure were not breached.

Ever since David Lloyd George and Herbert Asquith forced, by threat of massive creation of peerages, the 1911 Budget through and with it the start of National Insurance and the demise of the workhouse, there has been a convention that the Lords do not oppose or amend Finance Bills.

But the tax credit cuts were not in a Finance Bill. Osborne instead tried to sneak them through by statutory instrument. This is secondary legislation whereby a Minister signs off laws under powers delegated to him by primary legislation. Secondary legislation gets much less parliamentary time and committee scrutiny. If Osborne had put the tax credit proposals in a Finance Bill, as they certainly should have been – it is Osborne who was breaking parliamentary convention here – rather than sneak them under the table as secondary legislation, the Lords would indeed not have been able to stop them without breaching constitutional convention. Which just goes to show it doesn’t always pay to be a weasel.

Osborne is hoist by his own petard.

Aah, Tories say. But there is another convention that the Lords do not block secondary legislation.

They are making that one up. There is no such constitutional convention and there are plenty of examples of the Lords blocking secondary legislation. There is a huge quantity of secondary legislation, thousands and thousands of laws – ministers continually are signing off legal changes.

But the entire basis of the secondary legislation is that parliament has delegated to ministers, in Acts, powers to sign off uncontroversial matter. This can be, for example, the detail of regulations needed technically to enforce primary legislation, and the occasional updates needed. Only a very low percentage indeed of secondary legislation ever gets queried by the Lords, but that is not because of a constitutional convention. That is because most of it is dull stuff. But when the government abuses its authority and tries to smuggle vital changes through secondary legislation, the Lords not only has the constitutional right to challenge this abuse, it has the constitutional duty to do so.

I wish they would do it more often. For example, when the Labour Party used Westminster secondary legislation to cede 6,000 square miles of Scotland’s sea to England without parliamentary scrutiny.

Finally, there is a constitutional convention that the Lords do not oppose manifesto commitments on which a government has been elected. But the Tories rather carefully did not put tax credit cuts in their manifesto, and indeed in campaigning said they would not do it.

The British constitution is appallingly undemocratic. The fact that an undemocratic chamber has fended off a proposal from an undemocratic executive which gained the votes of only 37% of the voting electors, is not a blow struck for democracy. It is however a temporary victory for human decency in mitigating an attack on the poor.

It is also an achievement for Jeremy Corbyn. Nobody can truly believe that Labour peers would have been organised to do this under Yvette Cooper or Liz Kendall.

UPDATE Wings Over Scotland has a very different take on the Labour Party performance. That the Labour Party was not radical enough to go for the “fatal” option I am afraid I find unsurprising. It remains a deeply conservative institution. But I had not previously encountered the argument that 90% would lose the money from universal credit anyway, and it is stunningly cynical. But on close consideration, I cannot work out what it means. Either there must be some additional cut to universal credit, or that those who lost tax credit could have regained it on universal credit anyway. If anybody could explain that one further, I should be grateful.


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641 thoughts on “Garters in a Twist

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  • Mary

    The ex wife of Lord Dalmeny. The latter loaned the HJS £175k. He is Lord Rosebery’s heir and deputy chairman of Sotheby’s.

    Lady Dalmeny is a fellow] of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think tank engaged in defence and security research, and is a senior associate at the Royal Society of Medicine. Dalmeny has strong relationships with the UK Military and US Military. She was formerly Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society, a British cross-party think tank concerned with foreign and defence policy. She is a former trustee of the War Memorials Trust.

    She is a fellow and on the Executive Council of the British-American Project (BAP), a leadership organisation that supports the UK/US relationship. She sits on the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) track II Nuclear Trilateral Dialogue between France, UK and the USA. She is a Patron and former Chairman of the Royal Caledonian Ball.

    Dalmeny has been photographed in the Royal Ascot carriage procession.

    In April 2015, Lady Dalmeny was named in the Tatler Magazine Popularity Power 100 list.

    Personal life

    Lady Dalmeny lives between her homes in London and Scotland; she was married to Harry, Lord Dalmeny and together they have five children.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline,_Lady_Dalmeny

    ‘In 1994, Lord Dalmeny married Caroline Daglish, a former Conservative Party researcher working for Robert Jones, MP and Lord Strathclyde.’

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Primrose,_Lord_Dalmeny

    Well. Well! Just another one of those Conservative Party/Establishment webs then.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita e' bella)

    RobG

    “I don’t care whether Aamer was actually guilty of anything”
    __________________

    Perhaps you should?

    Does the same generosity of spirit apply wrt Tony Blair?

    _____________________

    “The egits who come on here and spout the Daily Mail/brain-dead propaganda”

    _____________________

    It might be interesting to see which posters on here link the most to the Daily Mail.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita e' bella)

    “Corbett went on to make a prediction about the Hastert case that has now proved true:

    “In short, this scandal is too deep, too dark, and covers too many people from both sides of the political aisle for it to ever proceed in public…etc, etc…”

    ____________________

    Interesting to note that the poster of the above has gone over to relaying the conspiracy theories of others rather than manufacturing his own.

    “I would say it is likelier and likelier that Janner will soon die in an unfortunate accident” refers.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita e' bella)

    “Of course the people they hate most are people who understand the bureaucratic process but who have turned against it. People like Snowden. They consider them traitors.”
    __________________

    You wouldn’t be attempting to give readers the impression that you’re one of those people, would you?

    (Gasps of admiration follow…)

  • Habbabkuk (la vita e' bella)

    Mary

    You were up early this morning, weren’t you. (Gasps of admiration)

    And you have been rather prolific so far (Further gasps of admiration).

    Keep up the good work!

  • Habbabkuk (la vita e' bella)

    Mary

    Thanks for that heads-up on Lady Dalmeny. It looks as if she has been able to successfully combine an interesting career with raising a family. This is something any socially-aware and compassionate commenter would wish for any woman desirous of having a career, I believe.

    ++++++++++++++++++

    I do admire all your effort to provide biographies of all sorts of people most of us have never heard of. You are – in my opinion – the Kalinda Sharma of this blog (take that as a compliment, I’m a huge fan of “The God Wife”).

  • Habbabkuk (la vita e' bella)

    “The Good Wife”, not “The God Wife” – I told you I was a huge fan! 🙂

  • fedup

    Those who allege that Shaker “was clearly up to no good in Afghanistan/Pakistan”

    This is the result of the “education” of the morons in the university of the oligarch owned medjia! The simple fact that if the Aamer could have been found guilty of the spitting on a boot of marauding hoards of US he would have been put on trial and with great fanfare sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.

    However in the absence of any possible trumped up charges getting any results Aamer is let go! Although there are those whom are making a tenner a day spamming this board and elsewhere in the way of fighting the good fight for zionistan. Fact that the Aamer was held a lot longer than any inmate in any of the concentration camps somehow has not passed through the hateful minds of these cretins!

  • fred

    “Fuck… one spends all day Making a Banner Calling Cameron a war Criminal…To take to Larges Tory Conference..then find oot it’s cancelled…

    Since When By the Way…did the Yes movement cause Violence”

    Another nail in the coffin for freedom of speech in Scotland and a nail in the coffin for democracy for without freedom of speech there can be no democracy.

    I have argued against conservative policies all my life, even gone out and demonstrated myself but it was always the policies I hated not the people and when a political party, any political party as what their policies, has to cancel a meeting out of fear for their own personal safety it is a very sad day indeed in Scotland.

  • Monteverdi

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/watch-israeli-soldiers-threaten-bethlehem-refugee-camp-over-loudspeaker-1147215543

    Very disturbing footage caught on Camera from Aids refugee camp in Bethlehem from a couple of days ago when this IDF landrover fitted with loudspeakers broadcasts to the residents as can be heard on the video …….” If you throw stones we will hit you with gas till you die -the youth , the children , the old people ”

    Absolutely chilling !!

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Now has the Mediterranean Dialogue pulled off a Germanwings type-disaster on that leased Metrojet plane over the Sinia, carrying all those Russians back to St. Petersburg?

    Looks like a clear ‘false flag’ operation. especially with Israel and Egypt rushing to the rescue.

  • Mary

    One could not imagine such a beautiful woman, Lady Dalmeny, and the mother of five children, allying herself to those groups of psychopathic war mongers listed earlier.

    She has obviously found her soul mates.

    Did anyone spot her link to Lord Strathclyde who is said to be the closest friend of David ‘I am a Zionist’ Cameron?

    Did anyone spot P Charles at that HJS conference on Inclusive Capital (inclusive for whom we might ask) along with some killers from the 1% section of the British and American societies. He is after all the father of a young psychopath who has done some killing in Afghanistan.

    Here he is with some ladies…. Lady Rothschild, IMF’s Christine Lagarde and Fiona Woolf the Mayor of the City of London at the time.

    https://goo.gl/Zpkicx

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/27/markets-unruffled-by-eu-elections-as-lloyds-announces-tsb-float-business-live

    Such nice groupings.

  • nevermind

    The insult of it all. Whisked away for ‘medical assessment’, talk of millions of compensation (only if he keeps quiet about his horrendous experiences, off course) and no humanity shown to an innocent man.

    Then comes the BBC news at ten calling him ‘Britain last resident in Guantanamo’ insult upon ignorance and stupidity. Was his residency acquired?, did he pay rent? why not the term ‘ innocent inmate or prisoner’.
    has the BBC got any reason for smearing Shaker with peeps from the Jackson society, the den of western terrorist inequity?

    Stafford Smith made it clear already when he says that Shaker is not interested in compensation, but he wants to ensure that this does not happen again in future by speaking out about his experiences, the torture by USUK, and all that happened at Guantanamo. I’m looking forward to hear the truth behind the lies that have kept Straw and Blair out of court.

    Jeez Obomber,. how much can you lie to get re-elected, shut this hell hole Guantanamo and be damned, you have got your lifelong pensions why not save some of your dignity as an Afro American? coward!

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Mary

    “I can’t remember if I have checked the HJS out on the Charity Commission website. It does have charitable status. Charity for whom and for what purpose?”
    _____________________

    I suspect those must be rhetorical questions. Surely it would be possible for the Kalinda Sharma of this blog to be able to answer them herself, eg by going onto the Charity Commission’s website and doing a little digging?

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Fedup

    ” Although there are those whom are making a tenner a day spamming this board and elsewhere in the way of fighting the good fight for zionistan.”

    ___________________

    You appear to be making a link between Afghanistan and Israel (aka as “zionistan” in your troubled lexicon). Can you elucidate further?

    Thank you

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “Fact that the Aamer was held a lot longer than any inmate in any of the concentration camps somehow has not passed through the hateful minds of these cretins!”

    ________________________

    Only if you deny that the former Soviet Union had concentration camps galore.

    ++++++++++++++++++++

    Please return to the asylum forthwith.

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Monteverdi

    Actually, it’s not that chilling at all.

    Some people would say that it’s rather good that the Israeli Defence Force is giving potential Palestinian stone throwers (and perhaps not only stones) due warning of what the consequences of their actions are likely to be.

    No stone throwing = no counter-mesures, one might say. Happens all over the world!

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Nebelmind

    “The insult of it all. Whisked away for ‘medical assessment’, talk of millions of compensation (only if he keeps quiet about his horrendous experiences, off course)”

    _______________________

    Perhaps the medical assessment is connected in some way with the question of compensation? The amount of compensation likely to depend to a certain extent on medical damage rather than keeping “quiet” (which he and his supporters have shown no signs of so far)?

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ~”Then comes the BBC news at ten calling him ‘Britain last resident in Guantanamo’ insult upon ignorance and stupidity.”

    ______________________

    Could have ee worse, old chap – the BBC might just have said he was Saudi Arabian, in which case you might have had something more valid to bitch on about.

    +++++++++++++++++

    Get back to your turnip patch, you excitable moro!.

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    “Now has the Mediterranean Dialogue pulled off a Germanwings type-disaster on that leased Metrojet plane over the Sinia, carrying all those Russians back to St. Petersburg?

    Looks like a clear ‘false flag’ operation. especially with Israel and Egypt rushing to the rescue.”

    _____________________

    I was wondering how long it would be before one of the “regulars” came up with something like that.

    Not, of course, that any of the other regulars will take to the keyboard to tell Trowbridge where to get off.

    Of course not. 🙂

  • Monteverdi

    Lo Zuccone 1.56pm

    Please keep posting such comments . It’s always interesting watching a man digging himself deeper into a metaphorical amoral hole .

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Mary

    “One could not imagine such a beautiful woman, Lady Dalmeny, and the mother of five children, allying herself to those groups of psychopathic war mongers listed earlier.”
    ___________________

    We know that you (and Republicofscotland) are obsessed with people’s appearances – but don’t you think that the above bit is rather silly even by your own high standards?

    Of course, no member of your Order of the Brown Nosers will take to his or her keyboard to tell you not to be so silly.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    And check out the nationalities of the passengers on board MH370, MH17, the Germanwings flight, Asiana 214, this Metrojet one et al. where the close ones to NATO are placed against the Malays, Chinese, Russians, Germans, Dutch, Spanish, etc.

    Looks like Mediterranean Dialogue numbers are, near zero while there are about a 1,000 victims.

    This is covert war in spades.

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Pulcinella (12h22)

    I suppose you would prefer the IDF not to give advance warning of the likely consequences of stone throwing?

    Yes, I suppose you would – because that would allow you to express even greater indignation and step up your foaming rate.

    You’re the amoral git on here, Pulcinella.

  • Habbabkuk (Mary's Nemesis)

    Nebelmind

    Anything to say about Trowbridge’s latest?

    No, I thought not.

    Turnip-head!

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    I think these smaller airlines from little countries are more susceptible to counterfeit airframe parts. Corruption is endemic throughout all systems of government and bureaucracy.

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