Meaningful freedom has always
implied responsibility.

Last week, the Localism Bill was passed into law. I was glad to support its passage.  Through 13 years of New Labour, we witnessed continual moves towards centralised planning and micro-managing of our everyday lives. This new law will see central government interference cut and give power back to citizens, community groups and local councils.

To accompany the Act, the Government have helpfully updated the ‘plain English guide’ that was produced to accompany the Bill. You can read it here.

For councils this will mean: 

• Clarification of the rules on predetermination in order to free up councillors to express their opinions on issues of local importance without the fear of legal challenge;
• Abolition of Labour’s discredited Standards Board regime;
• Greater control over business rates.  Councils will have the power to offer local business rate discounts, which could help attract firms, investment and jobs;
• Cancellation of Labour’s unfair ‘ports tax’, which threatened to cripple key businesses, it simplifies the process for claiming small business rate relief to help small shops and small firms; and
• New planning enforcement rules, giving councils the ability to take action against people who deliberately conceal unauthorised development.

For local communities it will grant:

• The Right to Bid to run local services;
• The Right to Challenge by putting forward ideas to help their community;
• The Right to Veto excess council tax rises;
• The opportunity to draw up Neighbourhood plans;

However, there are caveats. I am an advocate of local referenda so I was disappointed to see that the Lords removed the flagship ‘local referendum’ provision from the Bill. That would have allowed voters to launch local referenda on local issues. Referenda do remain for council tax, right-to-build and neighborhood planning, but I know this will be a disappointment to some people in Wycombe.

Neighbourhood plans must, understandably, work inside some limits. If major infrastructure is decided upon at a national level, such as this benighted high-speed rail line, or if a strategic local plan calls for a certain number of homes to be built, then the Localism Act has safeguards to ensure neighbourhood plans do not override these wider ranging policies. Again, this will be a disappointment.

Nevertheless, I hope that the Localism Act will live up to its initial goal of radically decentralising power and fostering an environment where communities will have a greater say in their local area. We will see…

Via Open Europe:

The European Commission will next week propose that the budget for the European Union in 2012 should be increased from its current level.

The proposal will set in train a prolonged period of wrangling between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, over both the total level of spending and the allocation of the budget to specific policy areas.

As ever, our EU overlords appear to be on a different and quite remote planet. You can read more here.  I made a related speech on the EU Budget which you can find here.

A binding in/out referendum is long overdue but, in the meantime, thanks to the LibDems, who let us down over Lisbon, we now have to ask the public whether they want AV. Hardly the key deficiency in our constitution, is it?

We seem to be spending an excessive amount of time debating Labour’s rather tedious amendment to the EU Bill (Clause 1, Amendment 85). It would introduce a European Union Referendum Committee.

I should think it will be safely defeated but it is a pity that we will not reach Peter Bone’s amendment to require an in/out referendum after a referendum result refusing a transfer of powers to the EU. At least, it seems we will not reach it today…

Stepping back, three things are required in relation to our present constitutional settlement:

• To decide whether we wish to live in a failing social democracy without democratic legitimacy,
• To create a positive alternative vision for the UK and Europe,
• To express a preference in a referendum of the British people.

What matters is the promotion of human flourishing: to that end, I recommend the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index. It’s my view that the EU is not on a trajectory to maintaining the European nations’ position in that index.

We should change course and the sooner the better. The present Bill is a start, but only a beginning. While I would like to see all Europe change course, there is only so much the UK can do: it’s time for an in/out EU referendum.

Via CentreRight: One hundred reasons why Ireland should say ‘no’ (again) to Lisbon:

Jim McConalogue, Editor of The European Journal and occasionally of this parish, has listed one hundred reasons why Ireland should again reject Lisbon. It was disclosed at the weekend that Ryanair are helping to bankroll the ‘Yes campaign’ which current opinion polling suggests is on course for victory.

Read more here, and if you have not done so, it is well worth watching Daniel Hannan’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference last year here.

It is indeed an incredible thing that ostensible advocates of democracy are prepared to support the Lisbon Treaty. Ladies and gentlemen, the EU will be what is laid down in its Constitution, and that is a state whose ultimate and active originators of law cannot be dismissed at the ballot box.

As Karl Popper said:

You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence “democracy”, and the other “tyranny”.