Shredding Magna Carta

The document unwillingly signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215 remains the foundation of our ability to hold our government to account. This concept was taken over the Atlantic by our American cousins and written into their constitution. It is central to the American way of life that citizens can hold their government to account at all levels. I heard on radio the other day that the US has much better control of fishing the sea (or more accurately overfishing) than Europe, precisely because various citizens groups have been able to mount effective campaigns to prevent overfishing. Sadly, he pointed out, Europe has no such mechanism, so whereas we in the UK might be able to fall back on our ancient Magna Carta rights, they have no application in an European context.

I have been sleepwalking into this. I confess, along with millions of others, I have never voted in an European election and could scarcely name any MEPs or what they do. I need to start paying attention. Greta Andreasson on Question Time a few weeks ago told us that 75% of the regulations that affect our live come from Brussels. That made me sit up. Here we are with 646 Members of Parliament, many of them on the fiddle, who only deal with legislation that impacts 25% of our lives! Something is out of joint. Our ancient English rights to hold our government to account only applies to a quarter of the legislation that is passed. That's akin to saying that you can hold your Parish Council to account for the few things they control, but for the rest of it, cry in the wilderness.