This is just too good to bury in a tweet. For Click on Wales Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the Wales Governance Centre, brilliantly sends up the vacuousness of politics by ineffective legislation in six clauses, in Let’s All Play Welsh Legislation Bingo!
Simply score 10 points for every one of the following observed:
- Government announces intention to legislate accompanied by rhetoric including the phrases ‘world leading’, ‘international best practice’ and ‘new rights’.
- Government subsequently publishes Bill that is vague, non-committal and contains no judicable rights.
- Following objections to the gulf between the initial rhetoric and Bill contents, the Government provides an obfuscatory and evasive response referencing ‘legal advice’ that is never shared nor properly explained.
- Government marginally strengthens Bill following pressure from Opposition and civil society organisations.
- Following these concessions, civil society organisations pressurise Opposition into passing Bill using arguments that focus on the original rhetoric that rather than actual contents of the legislation.
- Despite their misgivings, Opposition vote to pass Bill for fear of appearing to oppose something that is claimed to be ‘world leading’, as embodying ‘international best practice’, and as creating ‘new rights’.
Score a bonus 20 points for every non-judicable ‘right’ that reaches the statute book!
Now before anyone here starts to get cocky, we’ve just handed permission to Westminster to pass an order in council with little debate in the Assembly, and not even a vestige of the faux scrutiny outlined above.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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