The Trojan Horse

Politicians have a number of ways of getting tricky legislation through. One method is to pass it just before Christmas or the summer recess, when noone's paying attention. Another is to couch the bill in obscure language that lasts for fifty pages and put the important bit somewhere in the middle where it won't be noticed. But by far the favourite method of passing controversial legislation is the Trojan horse method. You take an issue that everyone agrees on, and form a bill round it. Then you add on the legislation that you want to pass. People are then torn between voting on the part in the bill that they like, and the part that they don't like. Classic examples of the Trojan horse are the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Act (Scotland) which initiated the smoking ban in Scotland, but also allowed GP services to be run by private companies; the Legislation and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 which became known as 'the abolition of Parliament act' for the draconian powers that it granted to the cabinet in an 'emergency; and the Mental Capacity Act itself, which was meant to provide a Court of Protection and an independent advocacy service for the mentally incapacitated, but ended up taking their rights away.

The original motivation of this bill was picking up on a previous bill that was championed by the MP Tom Clarke to provide an advocacy service for the mentally incapacitated. This bill went through Parliament in the Thatcher years, and an advocacy service was agreed to in principle, but with the caveat 'when costs allow'. Of course, the government decided that costs didn't allow them to set this up and so it sank without trace. But the other motivation was the Tony Bland case. Tony Bland was a football supporter who was crushed in the crowd at Hillsborough. He spent four years in PVS (permanant vegetative state) and his family went to the High Court to get his feeding drips removed, so that he could die.The judge ruled in their favour but made it clear that it was not to set a precedent for case law and any other cases of this nature had to go to court to be decided. These cases were relatively few; there were two or three applications each year to the High Court on these matters, but the Tony Bland case became the second driver for the more controversial stuff that was put in the MCA. These were;

1.) Making advance directives legally binding;
2) Re-classifying food and fluids provided by intravenous means, as medical treatment as opposed to basic care;
3.) 'Best interests' legislation which allowed death as one option to be considered;
4.) One that people haven't really picked up on yet; non -therapeutic medical research on the mentally incapacitated.

The Mental Capacity Bill (or the mental incapacity bill as it was known until the last year of its progress) was a long time in preparation. It was fifteen years in the writing before it finally started its journey through the various stages in Westminster. The person charged with steering it was David Lammy. David Lammy(pictured) is MP for Tottenham and was a rising star. He was the first British black to study law at Harvard. At this point he was Minister for Constitutional Affairs and this bill was a chance to prove himself. Backing him were an alliance of charities who had been involved in the consultation process of the bill and who desperately wanted the advocacy service. Those opposing were mainly church groups and the Parliamentary Pro Life Group whose main speakers were Jim Dobbin, Ann Widdecombe and Lord Brennan. So the stage was set for the debate and what a debate it turned out to be.

PS For the witches amongst us, David Lammy has a connection to DEMOS..