So, Prime Minister Theresa May finally pulled the trigger on Article 50, which she’s been just dying to do ever since she stepped into office and has been taking the mickey to hurry the process along ever since, and now we’re like 700 days away from having officially, totally left the European Union. As a result, Brexit begins. Now, the so-called “Great Repeal Bill” has been published proposing some stuff, and it’s raised eyebrows because it’s pretty useless and impractical.
A huge power shift is proposed that means that environmental standards and employment rights and everything else that makes being British somewhat enjoyable are all under risk, because the government is proposing that it be able to completely change all of those things whenever they feel like it.
It’s a very worrying notion, and wouldn’t be a very welcome by-product of the already-unwelcome Brexit process.
Brexit secretary David Davis is in charge
David Davis, the Brexit secretary who’s now been put in charge of getting this gargantuan legislation pushed through, and will spend a good deal of time in the coming weeks fending off angry MPs during Parliamentary debates. Davis says that the government will only make changes to our rights when they believe that “technical changes” need to be made in order to keep the British law intact and up and running while he negotiates the EU leave. He might be telling the truth, but it’s still an alarming invasion.
Some lawyers and campaigners (even pro-Leave ones) are contesting this strange new Brexit bill.
The left and right sides of the political fence are coming together to fight the government as they’re trying to screw all of us, the good old-fashioned way. The bill is being called “one of the largest legislative projects ever undertaken” by the House of Commons. What fascinating times we’re living in.
Biggest problem is its name
The biggest problem with this new Brexit bill (and the most obvious, surface-level one) is that its name is completely inappropriate. It’s not a “repeal” by any means, and they’ve done that on purpose. The “great repeal Brexit bill” sounds really good, like Brexit is being cancelled or something, when it’s actually a backhanded move by the government to swoop in on our rights.
It’s apparently been inspired by 1832’s mad reform bill, but the goal here isn’t reform, it’s stability. Davis himself even admits he called it the “great repeal bill” because it sounds better than the “great conversion bill,” which MPs suggested to him as a more accurate name and the Brexit secretary said that while it is more appropriate, it “doesn’t have the same appeal.” So, apparently that’s an alright justification for misleading the whole country (many of whom will know nothing of the bill beyond its name on the front page of a newspaper they won’t bother to read).
MPs are concerned about how the government plans to change the European “acquis” into UK law during the Brexit negotiations.
They only have a (relatively) short amount of time to do all these things that they’re desperately unprepared for, so even Leave-supporting MPs are worried by the great repeal bill, which is supposed to be used “to rectify problems occurring as a consequence of leaving the EU.” There must be better ways to do that, and if there isn’t, just call it what it really is and don’t sugar-coat it.
