Anthony Barnett (London, OK): The Ministry of Justice has announced a " major clean-up of meaningless and defunct laws from the Statute Book" All or part of 328 Acts of Parliament that are masquerading as live laws are to be removed under the Statute Law (Repeals) Bill. Jack Straw says:
Laws on turnpikes, workhouses, and the Peterloo massacre are rightly of interest to historians, but there is no need to retain them on the statute book. Obsolete laws can raise people's expectations and invite costly and pointless legal activity. This is a necessary and overdue Parliamentary spring clean.
But hold on a minute. What the MoJ calls other legal curiosities under repeal includes: "Repeal of obsolete laws on the police including a law of 1839 requiring street musicians to leave the area if required to do so by irritated householders." For many years a street busker used to play Greensleaves below my flat in Covent Garden on a recorder. I miss it now, if I feel nostalgic. But at the time it could drive you mad when he began it all over again for the umpteenth time. If I had know that I had the legal right to insist that he expand his repertoire... Once again, it seems, we are about to suffer the blows of regressive modernisation.
