1 APRIL 2000, Page 34

Elephant Bill

LIKE a crazed elephant, the Financial Ser- vices and Markets Bill barges onwards through the House of Lords. It will soon collect its 2,000th amendment — one for each of the financial regulators down in Docklands who are making believe that this Bill is already law. To think that this beast has survived by the grace of the hunters! Six months ago it was heading straight for a Pooh trap, the procedural spikes loomed before it, only the opposition could, if its leaders chose, save it. They did. They seemed to think that, tempered by its nar- row squeak, it might reform or be reformed. Being amended is not the same thing. Hard cases make bad law, the lawyers say, but this ill-made law will make hard cases.