The People's Pledge website.

Comments

[Charles Grove]

"half our laws" is nowhere near reality - according to the House of Commons Library, it's 9.1%. The Swedish Parliament says it's 6.3% for them.

"no mechanism at all for scrutinising" is simply not true - there are EU committees in the Commons and the Lords, in addition to the scrutiny they receive at European level.

"no mechanism for holding those decision makers to account democratically". Hmm. I must have dreamed that whole time in 2009 when I thought I'd walked into a polling booth, and placed an X on a very long ballot paper marked "European elections".

"no-one has had any opportunity to have their say" on.... whether or not to be part of the UK, of England, to have a capital in London, a bicameral Parliament..... to choose the only thing that's ever actually been confirmed in a national referendum as the one and only thing that they're unhappy with, and want to see re-run is... well, bizarre, at best.

[Dev Cornish]

Charles, funny you mention about the House of Commons library....the most recent guidance (from October '10) issued by a HoC publication on this puts the percentage of EU laws having an economic impact on the UK at 50%. See briefing paper 10/62

[Dontmakemelaugh: The Cami-Nickers EU love-in Party]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/8067510/Up-to-half-of-British-laws-come-from-Europe-House-of-Commons-Library-claims.html
Commons Library claims
Up to half of all legislation passed by the British Government comes from the European Union, according to independent Westminster researchers.

By Martin Beckford 10:00PM BST 28 Oct 2010
Parliament is enacting more than 3,000 regulations a year which originated in Brussels, the House of Commons Library found.
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2009/06/03/what-percentage-of-our-laws-actually-come-from-the-eu/
No one agrees on how much legislation and regulation stems from the EU. The 9.1% figure stated by the House of Commons Library is too low, as it only covers Statutory Instruments, not ALL laws; the higher figures of 84%, 75% and even 50% claimed by the likes of Hannan, Farrage and Cameron are based on miscalculations, misunderstandings, or sources unknown, and often derive from parts of the EU other than just the UK – and so with no hard evidence to support them must be dismissed as either too high or inapplicable to the British situation.

And even the Europhile Cameron admits this:
David Cameron: “Almost half”
It is worth noting again here that Cameron says “almost half of all regulations affecting our businesses come from the EU”. Some laws may be regulations, but not all regulations are laws, so we need to tread a little more carefully here. Where did Cameron get his figure from? I genuinely have no idea. I can’t track down an original source for it anywhere – though it is a claim made on the website of the Institute of Directors – albeit with the qualification that “estimates vary”, something Cameron neglected to mention.

[13th spitfire]

Funny how the German parliament says it was 84% for them, selective quoting works both ways you know.

But if you want a better biased picture of how many it really is you should look at europhile blogger EU Nosemonkey;

http://www.jcm.org.uk/blog/2009/06/what-percentage-of-laws-come-from-the-eu/

He has more and better selective quoting for you.

[Martin Marprelate- A Man in the Street!]

I am glad to have been proven wrong about Zac Goldsmith. I didn't care much for him to begin with but he has proven that he is a chip off the old block.

I thank him for his stand on this matter and for following his own mind in many votes in the Commons.

[Denis Cooper]

Here it is for you:

http://www.parliament.uk/briefingpapers/commons/lib/research/rp2010/RP10-062.pdf

"How much legislation comes from Europe?"

RESEARCH PAPER 10/62 13 October 2010

[Denis Cooper]

That's out of date now that the House of Commons Library has started to include Regulations, many of which by-pass Parliament altogether.

[Denis Cooper]

Another important point from that article:

"Mats Persson, director of the think-tank Open Europe, said: “This study reveals that putting a number on the percentage of UK laws coming from the EU is almost impossible. But, in any case, it is far more important to measure the actual impact that EU laws have on the economy and individuals on a day-to-day basis.

“Our research, based on the Government’s own figures, shows that in 2009, 59 percent of the regulatory costs facing individuals, businesses and the public sector in the UK stemmed from EU legislation. This is a far more useful measure than merely counting individual laws without any sense of their relative importance – and it shows that the EU now has a massive impact on the UK.”"

[Matt]

Given that BOO has been made pretty much akin to Klan membership by the party leadership, the IN/OUT group could be a nice way for closeted BOO-minded MPs to gradually make the move towards coming out, a sort of "BOO-lite".

[Edward Huxley]

He was a witness for the six climate change activists who were cleared of causing criminal damage to Kingsnorth power station, so believes in violent protest. Also a Vice President of the CPRE, which supports the erection of wind turbines in our countryside.

Not to be trusted.