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I think he was talking about the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, it was largely gutted before it was passed. The original version gave very broad powers to ministers effectively allowing rule by decree. I've not read the text of the one that passed, but by all accounts it's much better.

Britain, alas, already tried the "WDWTFWWAWWA".

http://www.saveparliament.org.uk/problem.php

A bill that would basically allow any minister to change any law without parliamentary debate or oversight. This was allegedly intended to "allow the cutting of red tape". Alas, regardless of how well-intentioned it was, it doesn't protect the UK against misuse by present or future administrations.

Happily, the British are a little more politically aware than their transatlantic cousins, and managed to kick up a stink about it. Our second house of parliament also thoughtfully shot most of the provisions down, although they can be overruled by the first house.

The current North American administration would probably try it too, but I think it might be a bit much even for their main voting body (the media barons, obviously) to swallow. They pretty much have the equivalent already, as long as they don't draw too much attention to it - they can just filibuster anything they want into law. e.g. "The provide lots of money for orphans and nuke undesirable ethnic groupings bill"

If you really want to be frightened read up on how close we came to losing the rights granted to us by Magna Carta. The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, passed with amendments that put in place safeguards, was a bill that had it passed as it stood, would have given Ministers the ability to alter any law passed by Parliament. The only limitations being that new crimes could not be created if the penalty was greater than two years in prison and that it could not increase taxation. We came within a whisker of Fascism in the UK... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_and_Regul atory_Reform_Act_2006 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/ cmbills/111/06111.1-4.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnist s/guest_contributors/article733022.ece http://www.saveparliament.org.uk/index.php This is real - they tried it once they will try it again...

I call bullshit. Blair has got through some pretty creepy things -- look at the Civil Contingencies Act, for example -- but nothing that far-fetched. The closest he's come so far was the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, and the really bad stuff in there was dropped very quietly one fast news day a few weeks after it started getting noticed.

You forgot Save Parliament link :P

Furthermore, the passport applications will be denied unless you give up your passport number, DVLA number and NI number ie indexes to major UK databases on:

1. international travels.
2. car travels via national ANPR.
3. tax/income & disability benefits.

We're also being given a new unique number for what can be no other purpose than indexing our medical records, bank records, phone & email records and potentially even dissident Slashdot posts like this one.

For those without a background in databases, I've explained this further here.

If that wasn't bad enough, the cards will also contain RFID chips.

It's also clear that the Government want to make us dependent on ID cards
"the ID card is now an accepted part of accessing many public- and private-sector services."

This would be less scary if Blair's Government hadn't lied at every opportunity, attacked one of our most prestigious academic institutes for daring to offer a less intrusive scheme and wasn't passing Bills to do away with our democratic process.

So what can you do to help?

1. Join No2ID, the extremely well-run campaign that is the fastest growing in the UK.
2. Tell all your UK friends, especially influential ones what is happening. Tell them to Renew their passports for Freedom in May.

The excuse for all of this is "the rise in global terrorism", well if that were really the reason then the terrorists have won, they have fundamentally changed our societies.

The reasons are deeper than that, terrorism is an excuse that is brought out as a bogey man to try to provide justification for further infringements of civil liberites. The Tony Blair, in the UK, is now pushing an act that will allow any government minister to change almost any bit of legislation without having to bother to pursuade parliament to agree.

We will suffer for sleep walking to a state where unelected civil servants have the power to snoop on us without any real oversight. This will be abused by these civil servants for their own personal ends.

You thought that Russia 20 years ago was bad - we will have it far worse.

There is a lot of noise in the UK online community about this. There is a campaign to stop the Bill at http://www.saveparliament.org.uk/ which also has lots and lots of information and links.

If you're in the UK, join up and help us fight!

If you're not, wish us luck...

There's also a website that explains in slightly less dry terms than the official parliament website some of the things it would allow MPs to do. It appears to be unavailable at the moment, but check it out when it's back up.
From memory, it's basically: add or change any laws they feel like, as long as they don't raise taxes, or have jail sentances over 2 years.
And as for why the opposition parties and UK media aren't mentioning it, I have no idea.