Red tape and cane toads
Biologists are fond of telling the cautionary tale of how, in 1935, the Australian Government introduced the Cane Toad as a way of controlling scarab beetle infestations in cane sugar plantations. The highly poisonous toad certainly controlled the beetles, but since it eats practically anything it can swallow - including cat food and bees - it swiftly went beyond its job description and became Australia's number one agricultural pest.
The Cane Toad should serve as a dreadful warning to the UK Government as it prepares its Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.
The Bill will allow the Government to tweak existing laws where it feels Parliament hasn't got them right or where they can be rationalised. According to the Cabinet Office, it will "tackle unnecessary or over-complicated regulation". It has been hailed as a step forward in the fight against red tape and over-regulation.
But the wisdom of unleashing a law to fight other laws needs to be questioned. Is the Bill simply Cane Toad regulation, destined to create problems of its own? The criticism is mounting, and objections from the business world have been reinforced by political activists.
So as the Bill hops into its final stages, we'll be continuing to report on it.
