emperor: (Default)
emperor ([personal profile] emperor) wrote2010-07-07 02:44 pm
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On keeping one's promises

Why is it OK to consider changing the law to allow the government to renege on promises it made to civil servants, when we're not considering doing similar to allow us to renege on, say, PFI deals?

[identity profile] ilanin.livejournal.com 2010-07-07 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
It is a widely-established constitutional principle that no Parliament can bind its successors. So if the redundancy package was set out in primary legislation by Parliament as mentioned further up the thread, then it was implicitly subject to amendment or repeal by any future Parliament.

Under that circumstances, I'd say the naughty government was the one that agreed to the original terms, unless of course their negotiators explained this point to the unions at the time (mind, you'd think Civil Servants ought to be aware of the issue)