What's the cost of regulation?

There are those who oppose government regulation. They claim that such "interference" is costly - and against everyone's interests - except the bureaucrats who are paid to, and gain power from, enforcement. But is this claim justified?

Consumer Protection and "Health and Safety" rules come under constant attack. Yet they are designed to protect. Isn't that one of the main reasons for having Government - to protect members of society from wrongdoing? Heaven forbid that we return to the days when life was cheap and thousands were maimed or killed because of unsafe working conditions. (My great grandfather was one who was killed in an accident in the mines). There are plenty of unscrupulous people out there - and failure to regulate the activities of bankers has cost us all dearly in recent months.

In a recent edition of TS (Trading Standards) Today - the following argument was made

Opinion: People who believe consumer protection regulation is costing British business millions of pounds a year are mistaken, argues Tony Allen.

Read the article here.

What do you think?

The European Parliament

Like the US Congress, but unlike the British Parliament - the European Parliament does its most important legislative work in committees. When a proposal is made it is allocated to the relevant committee - who then appoint a member as the rapporteur. Their job is to consult with other members; EU Institutions; and others in order to prepare a report which the committee can adopt. The Plenary sessions then debate and vote on the committeee's report.

The list of committees - with links to details of their work and documents - can be found here.

In my view the best guide to the European Parliament is by Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs & Michael Shackleton. Further details can be found here. Much information is also available on the European Parliament's own website

The US Constitution

Copies of the US Constitution are readily available. I have a number of inexpensive copies of the document - bought when I have been visiting the USA. Online there are a number of sites which

give the text. The House of Representatives site is available here.

An annotated Constitution is available here, which has been prepared by the Congressional Research Service. This has great detail - if you wish an outline of the main structure of the Constitution, one is available here.

It can be very useful to study the US Constitution, and not only if you are a US citizen. For students of constitutions generally it is a useful model. It is short, sharp and to the point. The structure is clear and logical. It may not be perfect, but does set out a structure of checks and balances.

SOTU Reactions

These were some of the reactions to last nights State of the Union speech (links)

Speaker of the House

Wahington Post - Chris Cillizza (The Fix)

ABC News - Factcheck

NPR

A Journal kept for 500 years!

This month marks the anniversary of the House of Lords Journal. The very first entry is dated 21st January 1510. Until the end of March that first journal is on display in the Royal Gallery. My wife and I went to see it yesterday. This, and all subsequent journals are held by the Parliamentary Archives.

According to the Parliamentary website - "The Journal is the legal record of the proceedings of Parliament. Both the House of Lords and the House of Commons produce a Journal for each session. It is not a word for word record of everything spoken, but is a description of all the decisions taken. In the House of Commons, the Votes and Proceedings are consolidated into the Journals on a sessional basis and these form the authoritative record of the decisions of the House. In the House of Lords, the Journals are compiled from the Minutes of Proceedings by the Clerk of the Journals office ."

The Lords Journal for 2007-2008 can be read here.