Orwell revisited: the Great Repeal Bill - Evening Standard comment

WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Political language, George Orwell tells us, “is designed to make lies sound truthful… and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”. The Great Repeal Bill is a case in point. This is the name Brexiteers have given to the law which will replace the European Communities Act. But it is worth examining what the legislation actually involves to see whether it deserves its grandiose title.

First, the name is a deliberate echo of the Great Reform Act of 1832, that milestone on Britain’s journey to being a modern democracy. The implication is that we are engaged in a similar democratic act — “taking back control” of our affairs by “restoring” parliamentary sovereignty. Yet the very idea that Parliament can vote to restore its sovereignty exposes the falsity behind the argument. Our Parliament chose to join the EU, and now it may choose to leave it. Proof that Parliament has always been sovereign.

Second, a “Great Repeal Bill” suggests lots of things are being repealed. Far from it. This is the single greatest act of regulation in UK history. Thousands of EU rules are being imported wholesale into our law. Not one is being watered down, and none of the rules are being abolished.

Only a tiny minority of Brexit voters thought that by leaving the EU they were voting for freer markets, less red tape and lower taxes. Again they are going to have their delusions exposed. Sunderland and Stoke did not vote to turn Britain into Singapore. There is no Commons majority to deregulate anything. Already lobbying has started for more intervention once the constraints of EU membership are removed. The export of livestock will be banned by regulation. Taxpayer bungs to struggling businesses are to be allowed. More complexity in our tax system, like lots of VAT rates, is going to be encouraged.

Regulation

The only constraint is that if we are going to have any chance of concluding a deal to allow “frictionless” trade with our largest export market to continue, we are going to have to agree with a lot of existing EU rules. Our cars will have to comply with its rules on safety and emissions; our financial products will have to comply with its laws on banking and insurance; our industries will have to be subsidy-free in order to sell goods and services into Europe. We will have left the EU, but be left with the EU’s rules. Regulation without representation. Brilliant.

Finally, the publication of today’s bill — on the first anniversary of Theresa May’s ill-starred premiership — is supposed to suggest this is all part of a cunning plan. The truth is, the deeper we get into Brexit, the more obvious it is that there is no plan at all. We are withdrawing from a host of European bodies that regulate everything from the safety of medicines to the security of nuclear supplies, but no one seems to know what domestic bodies are needed to replace them or how much they will cost. We are repatriating rule-making from European institutions on issues from fishing to finance but have no idea who will make these rules in future — is it the Westminster Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, local councils, or are we going to negotiate new treaties so that these rules can be made by European bodies again? The confusion over our relationship with Euratom, which Professor Robert Winston writes about on page eight today, suggests we are going to spend a lot of time trying to replicate what we already have.

To gloss over all these unanswered questions, the Great Repeal Bill gives to ministers the decision about who decides what. These are the so-called Henry VIII powers, named after the Tudor monarch who inflated the power of the Crown. The Great Reform Bill was passed in 1832 to transfer some of that power from the executive by abolishing the patronage of rotten boroughs and extending the franchise. How ironic that the Great Repeal Bill of 2017 takes power away from Parliament and gives it back to government. Orwell must be looking down on us with a smile.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT