mr president there are moments in this chamber when the order paper is beyond parody
the report on better lawmaking comes from the same institutions that have turned this part of the world into the most over-regulated and least competitive bloc on the planet that have brought us the bureaucratic nightmare of the common agricultural policy the ecological calamity of the common fisheries policy
but let me try and be constructive
here is an idea for better lawmaking let us try not to be declamatory when we make legislation
let us try not to use the statutes of this house as a way of showing that we are nice people that we care about unemployment that we care about the roma or longer working hours or whatever it is
heavy-handed intervention by the state is not usually the best way to solve problems
we are far better off allowing decisions to be taken as closely as possible to the people that they affect
so my modest proposal for better lawmaking is that we close down this parliament for the next six months on an experimental basis we do not pass any legislation at all and we see whether our constituents complain about it
