The last Week In Politics in the UK had two very important pieces of legislation win their votes in the House of Commons, the first was the highly publicised European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. The second was a bill that will make controversial changes to parliamentary committees. James Murdoch has also stated that the government must not ignore the Fox-Sky deal and threatens No. 10 by claiming it is a test over Brexit and the UK's openness to investment.
Meanwhile in the world, hurricane Irma continued its destructive path in the Caribbean nations, more elections announced in Venezuela, Brazilian president, Michel Temer, faces more corruption allegations and the Polish government have failed to address judiciary concerns.
The UK's democratic processes undermined?
The EU withdrawal bill has begun the process of going through parliament and after a long debate MPs voted in favour of a second reading, 326 to 290. Significantly, most of Labour voting against the government after they revealed that concessions should be made over the single market. But the main opposition to the bill has been over the dubbed 'Henry VIII clause', which gives significant powers to MPs to possibly change laws with little to no scrutiny. Furthermore, there are around 100 amendments lined up by MPs to try and combat the potential Conservative powerplay over legislation in the UK.
The other bill to win its first vote was a bill put forward by commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, the legislation itself will make controversial changes to parliamentary committees.
The bill was put through at a similar time as the brexit bill to cause confusion over its design and it has been advertised by the government as necessary for Brexit. The issue is that the bill will give the Conservatives the most power of key legislative committees. Currently, public bill committees mirror the make-up of the Commons and they scrutinise legislation line by line, but the changes will mean the Conservatives will have a majority despite being a minority government.
This means all legislation could be passed by the Conservatives with no fear of opposition and the laws can affect everyday life and very few will have any bearing on Brexit itself, because that is what the EU withdrawal bill is for, this is merely legislation that takes power away from society and rewrites the election result.
Briefly, James Murdoch is claiming that if the government don't allow Fox's takeover of Sky, then it would show that the UK isn't open to investment post-Brexit, but the concern is a monopoly of the media from Murdoch family owned companies, culture secretary has rightly referred it to the Competition and Market Authority for further scrutiny.
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Hurricane Irma continued its path of destruction in the Caribbean, killing scores of people and leaving countless homeless. Nearly every building in Barbuda were destroyed, two-thirds were on St Martin and several islands faced food shortages. Whilst many governments have pledged aid, UNICEF have stated that it will not be enough without private donations.
Venezuela's government have announced that elections for governors in 23 states are to be held on October 15th. After significant intervention from the US to purposefully destabilise the country it is likely that opposition members will win.
Meanwhile in Brazil, a supreme-court judge has authorised further investigations into corruption allegations against President Michel Temer. The federal police claim that he signed a decree regulating ports in return for bribes. These come after he was charged with corruption and put into power via a soft coup and is known to be favoured by the US. Whereas, Dilma Rousseff, who has been regarded as the most successful president in the country's history but was purposefully undermined by the US. Lastly, the European Commission have announced that Poland have failed to address the judiciary concerns and have given them a final warning and month to do so, what happens next is unknown.
