Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill
2:14 pm
Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If a union cannot run a ballot properly, that is a disastrous state for that union to be in, but people use the mechanisms to hand. We should always be
suspicious-always cautious, always careful-about allowing exemptions, because as soon as we do, people work out how to use them for a purpose other than that which was initially intended. That is why legislation in this place needs to be so properly considered-and considered in due and appropriate detail-because when it is not, people might actually believe the title of the Bill, which I come back to.
As the Minister so rightly said, the title refers to "Minor Errors". Clause 2 deals with the short title, and although I doubt whether the short title of a Bill should very often be a contentious matter, on this occasion I think that it is. I do not think that the Bill ought to be called the Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill. If passed, it should be called the Lawful Industrial Action (Coach and Horses) Act 2010, because that, as I said in an intervention on the Minister, is what it would do to the law as it stands. The Bill would get rid of so many safeguards, and this House is here to safeguard the British people-our electors-not just from over-mighty government, but from over-mighty private organisations that may wish to use and abuse their power.