THERE has been a convention not to use the so called Henry VIII clause in Bills for many centuries (Echo, Sept 11), but it is now being used by the Government to turn EU law into UK law.

However, I believe if you look into this, you will find the clause has been used dozens of time in social security legislation since 1947 to make welfare benefits regulation part of UK law.

In 1978, the widespread belief was UK law was supreme. Eleven years later, legal thinking had been completely reversed and law students were taught EU law was supreme. The proposed Bill before Parliament ends that doubt and uncertainty.

We need to know what the law has been while we’ve been in the EU. I hope the Bill is made retrospective which will end this legal controversy and nail shut forever a massive legal can of worms. The alternative is chaos.

Nigel F Boddy, Darlington