Britain | Poor law

The Labour government picks up a bad Tory habit

Expansive and rushed legislation remains a problem

King Henry VIII with Barber surgeons
Photograph: Alamy

LEGAL types who were troubled by the previous Conservative government’s low regard for Parliament took heart from a speech delivered on October 14th by Richard Hermer, the new attorney-general. In an address titled “The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism”, he said that a decade of instability had “stretched the fabric of our constitution to its limit”. Lax lawmaking, he said, had “the effect of concentrating immense power in the hands of the executive”; he promised a “reset”.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Poor law”

From the November 9th 2024 edition

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