…you wait for one and then two show up at once.

Let’s start with the one that has been dominating the headlines in the past week and looks set to continue to do so as we move towards the end of the year. The Internal Market Bill would openly defy international law and that is not me saying that but the government itself.

It is hard to put a finger on exactly why this is such a big deal but there is just something not very British about refusing to play by the rules and deceiving the other side. Flouting the law in this way is something that we associate with ‘bad actors’ like China and North Korea, not the mother of all parliaments in Westminster.

Of course there will be practical consequences as well. As post-Brexit Britain seeks to do trade deals with the rest of the world this stance by the government automatically undermines any agreement. Threatening the stability of Northern Ireland will make it nearly impossible to do a deal with the U.S. and if the E.U. seeks to enforce the Protocol then the case will go before the European Court of Justice.

In other words even if you support the government this Bill ultimately harms its longer-term policy goals.

The second crisis is much more subtle but still eats away at our democratic norms. Last night the latest changes to coronavirus legislation were published only 15 minutes before they came into force. There was no good excuse for this and yet it is an area of the law that attracts criminal sanctions for a breach. Part of the rule of law is knowing the crime that you are accused of committing but this approach by the government is pushing that to its very limit.

The other problem here is that this gives Parliament no real opportunity to scrutinise the proposals before they become law. We know that the global pandemic means that some of our regular legal processes have to be adapted but this is not the first time the government has legislated in this way and the excuses are wearing thin.

The country is moving towards being ruled by decree and as ministerial positions continue to be handed out on the basis of loyalty rather than capability, the number of people actually making decisions about the future of the UK is becoming remarkably small.