29th December 2009

This story makes extremely interesting reading and could well be the fore-runner to an EU Directive, methinks.

Why does this need to happen? Would it not be easier if MEPs appeared for questioning before the relevant Select Committee?

Parliamentary Sovereignty has been undermined in both a technical and practical sense for some time now and the principle that only those who have been elected to a body should have the privilege to sit within it and exercise the rights they are awarded is fairly fundamental and it follows that if those who have not been elected to a body are allowed to sit within it then it makes that body redundant.

If our national Parliament cannot block or amend EU legislation, then what benefit is there in improved scrutiny, or in who sits on any scrutiny panel; and why have a scrutiny panel anyway?

In any event the government over-ride scrutiny panels as and when they wish as can be seen from  this question by UKIP Peer and Leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the answer to which reveals how many times the government has, in fact, over-ridden the Commons and Lords EU Scrutiny Committees' "scrutiny reserve". 

Of course, this is something David Cameron and his 'cabal' will no doubt tell us is 'due democratic process'; 'bringing government closer to the people' and 'bringing transparency to government'!

Posted by: David Phipps