Parliamentary Democracy

Only a few weeks ago the Government lost a vote in the House of Lords on the Public Order Bill when they tried to change the interpretation of “serious disruption” of other people’s day-to-day activities to mean “anything more than minor”.

The government are now trying to reinsert this change via secondary legislation which has less Parliamentary scrutiny and can’t be amended in any way.

Baroness Jenny Jones has tabled a fatal motion to stop their proposal from becoming law. If we lose the Lords vote on this Fatal Motion on Tuesday 13th June, then it allows Ministers, for the first time ever, to overturn a parliamentary vote against a new law. It sets a precedent where a government can lose votes in Parliament, when trying to pass legislation, then simply have the same laws waved through as regulations. It undermines the whole system of parliamentary democracy and allows government by diktat.