Miscellaneous Amendments and Repeals

Part of Orders of the Day — Rates Bill – in the House of Commons at 9:40 pm on 28 March 1984.

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Photo of Jack Straw Jack Straw Shadow Spokesperson (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) 9:40, 28 March 1984

Yes. If the Under-Secretary would follow what he wrote over five years ago, he would be voting with us against this Bill. He complained then of Ministers brandishing the theory of the detailed mandate in the face of reasoned argument, the legal power of a British majority in the House of Commons has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. As the scriptures tell us, those who sow the wind … shall reap the whirlwind. The battle to save the local democracy that this Bill seeks to destroy does not end with this Third Reading, if Third Reading there be — it has only just begun. The Government do not know what they are taking on when they seek to destroy basic principles held dear and shared by both sides of the House for 100 years.