No rhyme or reason to latest state intrusion on union autonomy in Britain

Yesterday the Lords inconclusively debated Part 3 of the Lobbying Bill – which if enacted will introduce statutory regulation of trade union membership records. Ahead of the debate former TUC General Secretary Lord Monks had demolished the ‘Coalition’s proposed union-bashing legislation’ in an article on the Labour Lords' website:
http://www.labourlords.org.uk/the-plot-thickens
  The Lords debate can be read here, with excellent contributions by John Monks and other former union leaders who now represent Labour in the second chamber. Man-of-the-people Viscount Younger of Leckie put the case for the proposed anti union legislation, citing the need for ’confidence in their (union) accountability to their members’, and Liberal Democrat Lord Tyler made a vicious contribution linking the government's proposals to the Collins Review of the union Labour link:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/lords/todays-lords-debates/read/unknown/276/