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Originally Posted by furball
Abused regularly? It's been used 3 times, admittedly far more than under any other governments, but Blair had to deal with the most hostile House of Lords.
1. European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, which changed the system of elections to the European Parliament from first past the post to a form of proportional representation.
2. Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000, which equalised the age of consent for male homosexual sexual activities with that for heterosexual and lesbian sexual activities at 16.
3. Hunting Act 2004, which prohibited hare coursing and (subject to some exceptions) all hunting of wild mammals (particularly foxes) with dogs, taking effect in early 2005.
I assume the one you object to is the passing of the Hunting Act 2004. The majority of the population is against hunting with dogs, and a significant minority believed that action should be taken to ban it. The House of Lords by its very composition is naturally conservative and generally in favour of hunting. This is partly why the Commons had to override the Lords (the other reason being that the Act itself is terrible and the Lords had standards).
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Actually its none of the acts per-se. Its the way they rammed through the bill via the parliament act instead of giving it a full and proper debate.
'oh you dont like the bill, Tough. we've got a majority in the commons and the power to push through anything we want'
Its that sort of attitude which is bad for government