Be Excellent To Each Other

So, Clegg has said he wants to ask the public "which laws you think should go" as they "tear through the statute book".

Which ones would you get rid of?

I'd go for:

Theft Act
Hunting Act
Digital Economy Bill

Jude Law.

coleslaw

Lawrie Sanchez

Sod's Law. How that one got through Parliament in the first place I dread to think.

Mark Lawrenson.

In more sensible terms, it's now the Digital Economy Act, since it was passed. Stupid Act!

That'd be my first one to go. I'd basically focus on all the ones brought in by Labour to curtail our civil liberties.

I've got no real strong opinion on hunting.

May I ask what the Theft Act is, MaliA?

Kern has mucked up his own post.

More or less my position, which means I suppose I'm against a ban as just because I don't want to wear silly clothes and run around the countryside on horseback doesn't mean others shouldn't.

"Don't nick stuff"

In which case, I think we should keep that one.

I'm sure Moses would have something to say about it

I'd get rid of it, and replace it with a better written one.

Are we, the general scum, knowledgeable enought to be commenting on this kind of thing? What do we know?

Seeing as, of all the people here, I'm most in tune with the population of this country, I think I should be the only one commenting on "the people".

Given the amount of over-complicated legislation churned out without decent scrutiny, I wonder if our legislators are knowledgeable enough, or at least bothered to do their jobs.

(And I'm still annoyed that my new MP never answered my simple, naive question during the election campaign)

I don't think the point of this process is to replace laws with ones that are easier for law students to get better grades on.

Whatever act currently enshrines the legal process around Libel actions should be at very least carefully examined.

I beg to differ fix.

I'm entering a new era of being kind and compassionate to others.

Har!

If we could have everything completely codified in simple, easy to remember terms by next week I'd be a happy chappy.

I feel you missed the "no strong opinion" point.

Also, if I'd had a red coat, I'd most certainly have gone after the shrieking bastards at 3am this morning.

What's wrong with cruelty to animals, really?

*burns foxes*

I suppose it's the argument about causing necessary or unnecessary suffering. I doubt the life of the pig destined for my pork pie was particularly free of stress, but I overlook that because its existence was for a purpose.

That argument aside, the widespread flouting of the law as it stands suggests it was a bad Act and needs urgent revision.

Foxes or Oiks?

You don't even need to have a strong opinion on that one, it's a bit of a no brainer
Do we tolerate dog fighting, hare coursing and so on in this country? No, it's just not cricket, is it.

Fox hunting is not really any different in intention or result, so should go in the same pile. Case closed.

Really? There's widespread flouting of the "do not nick stuff" act as well in a certain small sector of the population, should be be removing that law on their behalf?

It's such a restful noise, isn't it. We've got about half a dozen foxes in the neighbourhood and the noise they make can only be described as something akin to butchering small children alive.

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That or the foxunters are naughty toffs who need a good spanking. We need a demonstration that the full majesty of the law applies just as much to them as it does to everyone else.

['A Friend'] knows of some clubs on the Cowley Road...

If we stopped protecting property rights, it is possible that our entire society would turn into some kind of anarchic free-for-all pretty soon. Allowing toffs to maul a few foxes now and again is unlikely to have the same kind of detrimental effects on our civilisation.

+1 vote for anarchic free-for-all.

Aye, they made too many concessions to the toffs because they whined "We have to exercise our horses & dogs somehow." this seems to be the main reason they get away with so much.

Go pony trekking & dog walking like everyone else you thick cunts.

Bad example perhaps. However, the law must apply equally to everyone, or more flouting will follow: that's detrimental. Tolerating cruelty to animals has a detrimental effect on society as well.

Not leading to its downfall admittedly.

Until you reclassify 'animals' as 'those on £100k pa or less'.

Of all the dreadful changes to the law that we've seen these last 13 years, I really think fox hunting is at the bottom of the pile, surely?

Wholesale changes to the Banking Sector and how it is regulated (i.e. some regulation would be really nice), is a good place to start. Then, perhaps, they won't fuck up the entire country for 20 years, once (and IF), we ever get back on our feet from last time around. Still, foxes are very cute and furry, I'll give you that.

I'd also take a butchers at the various (ridiculous) anti-libertarian laws and 'new hate crimes' while I was at it, not to mention preventing any government from misleading parliament in future to engage in war(s) of highly dubious legality, on pain of meaningful prosecution of the individuals concerned.

A serious, EU-wide review of so-called 'globalisation' and the supposed great benefits of it wouldn't go amiss either.

Finally, it might be a good idea to seriously review our relationship with the EU and the huge extent to which our laws are, in any case, largely decided outside of Westminster, not to mention the vast subsidies that the UK has to pay for the privelege.

I am little uncertain in the distinction between laws and policies when it comes to government. I would say a whole sale overhaul of the system would be more use than removing and rephrasing individual laws. There should be a focus and a goal, and then all things which affect that should be modified to produce the goal, irrelevant of terminology and definition.

So, is this like, law-talkin' folk that are going to start messing with the laws, or the coalition?

Frankly it sounds like one way to ruin a beautiful marriage if it's the latter.

Perhaps it would be better if they could concentrate on trying to fix shit rather than redoing everything from scratch.

Uncle Tom.

Actually, a new act to make all 'policies' trotted out by an incumbent government legally binding would be useful to stop the headline grabbing dross that regularly gets spewed out and then disappears never to be seen again. By all means, completely fuck over the NHS with a meaningless target of giving all cancer patients a consultation within 32 seconds of first diagnosis, but if it doesn't abolish cancer in the way you predicted, you can fuck off, and be banned for reelection.

They should repeal the Corn Laws.

Or at least plug the Corn holes.

Are we still allowed to crossbow the Welsh on Church ground?

Another vote for taking a close look at the Libel laws, to combat 'libel tourism' and generally make ti safe for science types to publish factual stuffs without getting jumped on by bastards.

Thankfully, both the Cons and the Libs had promised to do this even before the coalition.

Yep. So why were/are the Tories so keen to repeal the law? Surely there are better ways to hunt down and kill a fox than having to utilitise 37 dogs, 22 horses and an Apache attack helicopter.

"He's a wily old fox the, er, fox. I'll never forget the day we thought we had him cornered and then I heard the cry 'Shit! He's got a bazooka."

I find it most distateful that fox hunters are needlessly having an animal ripped apart for their own pleasure. It's not like they actually do much hunting. They just ride around on horses miles away from the action whilst dogs in the distance tear a fox to shreds.

I know animals killed for food will undoubtedly suffer a lot but at least there is the purpose of sustaining us. But I suppose we could live on vegetables so there's no need for that other than the pleasure of how they taste. So maybe that defeats the argument.

Oh and Plissken, haven't you ever seen the game Fox Fights Back? The fox definitely has a bazooka in that at some point and I'm sure it's a representation of some of the terrors hunters face.

But anyway making any change to that seems pretty pointless anyway as they are just doing whatever they like regardless.

But yes Digital Economy Act must definitely go. As a matter of priority.

Yup, sounds almost completely thrill-free, and is surely much more an assertion of class and privilege than it is a sport. It's certainly not hunting, in any meaningful sense of the word.

Being anti-foxhunting is just inverted snobbery and class-hatred.

Plus, foxes are cunts.

I KNOW A FARM WOT HUNTS FOXES.
HE JUST GOES OUT AND SHOOT THEM WITH A GUN.


True story.