Manawatu Daily Times An Overworked Parliament

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7145, 17 February 1930, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times An Overworked Parliament

Sooner or later the British Parliament will be compelled, it would seem, to find some method of relieving the extraordinary and increasing pressure of business under which it labours. The recent all-night sitting in the House of Commons shows that the time is ripe for suggestions such as that brought forward by Mr. F. \V. Jowett, Labour member for East Bradford.

Mr. Jowett’s plan is that all Bills should be dealt with as the less important measures are handled to-day. Every legislative proposal, whether of vital significance or not, would have its fortunes largely decided by a small special committee, to which each party would contribute a number of M.P.’s proportionate to its strength in the House, the House itself only rejecting or accepting the Bills brought before it. Putting an end to the discussing of important measures in committee of the whole House would obviously result in a great saving of time.

The need lor some such suggestion is made evident by the fact that Parliament is compelled each year to pass a large number of acts, against difficulties in the administration of which it has not the leisure to provide otherwise than by a supplementary mass of legislation by Orders in Council, rules, or regulations. To this procedure there are two chief objections. The ordinary citizen cannot make himself acquainted with this plethora of supplementary legislation, and often, though it may be concocted by departmental officials, it is placed above the jurisdiction of the courts, which is flatly against the tradition of the British Constitution. Some method, then, is necessary for restoring Parliament’s effective control over legislation.

Whether Mr. Jowett’s plan is a satisfactory solution is not yet clear. Democratic government depends on the people having the chance to approve or disapprove their representatives’ attitude on the chief measures considered during their period of office.

One danger of the Jowett scheme is that it might lead to the House becoming a mere ratifying assembly, accepting or rejecting Bills according to the recommendation of the appropriate committee. Thus, since the only members really responsible for any particular measure would be the members of the committee that had examined it, the constituents of every other member of the House in effect would be disfranchised so far as that particular question was concerned.