Government by idiots, and not by laws

"I stress that this is a case of mitigating revenue losses and not extending the application of the tax."

So says Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP, standard issue Labour dross Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, 25 June 2009, in the context of amendments to landfill tax following the decision in WRG.

Just when I was about to award to Ms McCarthy-Fry the inaugural "Rob Marris mediocrity award", Robert Maas beat me to it.  His piece here is to be recommended and especially for his unearthing of this past gem from Red Dawn:

"We expect people to be sensible.  The tax system cannot be absolute and is not designed to be.  The Schedule gives clear indicators of the type of development we want."

So much then for government by laws, and not by men.  Perhaps, we might now move on from the expenses furore and concentrate on the real scandal of recent years; that being the government's efforts to undermine the rule of law, as so aptly illustrated by the recent proposed banking code of conduct and, elsewhere, by the retrospective nature of Finance Act 2008, s. 58, for example.

Update: Robert Maas, usually only an infrequent blogger, has been moved to add another article about Ms McCarthy-Fry.