Statutes
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1944.tb00978.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1944 |
| Author | A. Farnsworth |
| Date | 01 July 1944 |
146
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
July,
1944
negotiation with the British Medical Association about the proposals for
a
national health service for many months. The White Paper which
represents the outcome of these discussions suggests that on many matters
the parties were not able to come to agreement. This must mean that
the Minister of State has not been able to persuade the professional
organisation to accept the policy which. he and his official advisers deem
to be necessary in the interests of the community.
It
may be that Parliament will be brought into the controversy as a
sort of umpire,
if
in the meantime the parties cannot arrive at an under-
standing. The Minister obviously feels himself in a much weaker position
with the Medical Association, upon which he cannot turn the whips, than
with Parliament, though naturally he would not admit
it
in public. This
is
reflected in the terms of the White Papers on Education and Health
respectively. Having reached agreement with the bodies interested in
education (except on one matter) the Minister presents definite proposals
which eventually Parliament rubber stamps. But having failed to reach
agreement with the doctors the Minister does not put his own proposals
definitely before the country, or Parliament, but publishes
a
series of
tentative or exploratory suggestions.
Even better examples could be furnished from the masses of war-time
legislation enacted by means of Orders in Council. To take just one of
these, we niay mention the Fire Prevention Consultative Committee, which
has been set up by the Minister of Home Security and which advises him
in regard to the iiumerous orders imposing upon business firms the
obligation to institute fire-watching arrangements, and upon the vast mass
of
the populace the obligation to do fire-guard duty. These orders certainly
touch the average citizen more closely in his everyday life than almost
any statute, and yet he has to rely for protection against the executive
much more upon the trade union officials, employers' representatives, and
other persons who constitute the Advisory Committee than upon the
elected representatives in the House of Commons.
It
seems therefore that the contest
of
power is in reality between the
executive and the outside bodies representative of vested interests. In
this struggle Parliament is represented by the executive, and eventually
ratifies whatever arrangement the executive is able to arrive
at.
This does
not mean that the struggle between legislative and executive has become
completely illusory, but
it
means that
it
has lost a good deal of
its
reality.
R.
S.
T.
C.
STATUTES
"
Pay
As
You
Earn
"--The
Income
Tax
(Employments,
etc.)
Acts,
1943
and
1944
The above Acts, together with the Income Tax (Employments) Regu-
lations,
1944
(S.R.
&
0.
1944,
No.
251),
have effected a revolution in the
system
of
charging and recovering tax due in respect of income arising
from employments and offices. In short, the new system-popularly
known as "Pay as ycu Earn"-provides that
each
payment
of
wages,
salary or other remuneration, shall bear its appropriate charge
of
tax in
such
a
way as to ensure that the aggregate tax deducted from the beginning
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