It allows for a huge increase in "offsets"—where a polluter pays someone else to stop polluting instead of curbing his own emissions.
Mr. King, the governor of the Bank of England, urged banks to meet stricter capital requirements by paying out less in bonuses or to shareholders in dividends instead of curbing lending to the real economy.
Instead of curbing finance, they advise governments impose radical austerity measures, which, in this economy, is tantamount to throwing the drowning victims an anchor, while tossing the perpetrators a life-preserver in the form of cash.
Instead of curbing the vast powers of the oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the bill will give her still more authority.The state-run oil behemoth, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPCC), will still control every aspect of the industry, from exploration and production to refining, pipelines and petrochemicals.
But local women's rights activists have criticised the new rules for keeping the burden of choice on the woman and warn that, instead of curbing the practice, the law could actually limit access to safe reproductive care and force women into choosing riskier forms of abortion.
These rights have come at a high cost: According to a report issued by U.S. aid agency Catholic Relief Services, petrodollars have exacerbated poverty instead of curbing it.
"Our research in six Indonesian cities confirmed that, instead of curbing the desire for intoxication, prohibition facilitates the growth of black markets, a case especially evident in areas with partial prohibition that limits the distribution of alcohol to particular zones," the report found.
However, using CURSI instead of CURB-65 provides no practical advantage, and CURB-65 is much better validated and already implemented in current guidelines.
Bishop Nikolaos of Mesogaias a former NASA scientist whose personal horizons are broader than most of the Greek episcopate denounced the bill because instead of merely curbing racial hatred, the bill also contained "the new and suspect word" homophobia.But this week, the church's ruling Holy Synod issued a statement about the bill which surprised many with its relative moderation.
Instead of the curbing of rights-threatening government power for which the idea of constitutionalism is supposed to stand, we have political suppression disguised in a cloak of false constitutional legitimacy.
Instead of trying to curb the powers of the Lords, Osborne should send them a thank-you note.
