Whatever the constitutional damage this may have done, the fact cannot be denied that Reagan needed to do this, to get past a House of Representatives dominated by his political opponents. What is odd about Blair, no what is downright creepy, is that he does not need to do this. But he does it anyway. Government announcements are made to the press before Parliament. Close personal friends are routinely appointed to high office.
Parliament is sent away for three and a half month holidays.
It is now illegal to buy two pounds of apples in an open-air market. However, little has been written on the way this episode shows how little the government understands, or cares for, its own constitution. The source of this pernicious regulation was an order put out by a Government department in 1994, setting a timetable for the gradual removal of imperial measurements. What this meant was that the government was outlawing a law made in 1985 from a law made in 1972. The government ignored this, and showed its contempt for the Parliament from which it derives its power.