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UK Gov't Launches 'Your Freedom' Website To Seek Laws Worth Repealing
Firefalcon writes "The UK Government launched Thursday the 'Your Freedom' website, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, to 'identify laws that should be repealed.' In a recent tweet, Police State UK pointed out an article in the New Statesman which appeals for people to call on the Government to repeal the ill thought-out Digital Economy Act that was rushed through Parliament without sufficient scrutiny. While part of the Act is regarding the digital TV switchover, other sections allow for users to be restricted or disconnected from the Internet at the behest of copyright owners, which goes against the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' that has been in place since the Magna Carta."
How about an automatic sunset: a law that has 50%+1 support gets to live 5 years before it has to be passed again. A law that has 100% support gets to live 10 years before it has to be passed again. Scale linearly between the two to give some incentive to make popular laws, not just squeakers. If that would cause an overload at "pass-again day", add +/- 5% of the duration to the time until it has to be passed again so that the exact day will be sufficiently randomized.
Hm. There's gotta be a way to discourage politicians from making new laws.
I've heard it suggested that every law should automatically expire after a fixed period, such as one year or five years. Not only would the legislature be kept busy with votes for the laws that obviously should be kept ("Uh oh, armed robbery is going to become legalized on Wednesday..."), but it would limit the damage from laws that spend frivolously, are poorly thought out, or are motivated by special interests. At worst, lobbyists would have influence legislators over and over again to reap the benefits of a law that favors them.
Not saying it's the best idea, but it's definitely an interesting one, and I feel strongly that we need a way to get laws that were, say, meant to help bring electricity to rural areas 80 years ago off the books.
"This algorithm runs in constant time. Come on, 2,147,483,648 is a constant..."
when i saw that when cameron moved into number 10, he only had a simple bed, 1-2 ikea brand stools and whatnot. i said to myself, well, someone who is living that simple has to have some good qualities at least.
...
immediately thereafter he apologized to irish for the bloody sunday. then, he come up proposing that queen's funds should be frozen. (11 mil or so a year). now, his partner clegg comes up with this.
it is sorry time for elite bloodsuckers in britain
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The cost of that still becomes prohibative over a long period.
How about this: after a law is passed it expires 5 years later.
If it is re-passed it takes 10 years to expire.
If after 10 more years it gets passed again then it lasts 20 years.
then 40
etc etc
that way laws like "no stabbing people" wouldn't have to be reviewed too often.
Laws which often fail would have to be reviewed a lot(as they should since that would imply they're not popular).