so why do we have a government?
We don't, what we have is a regional assembly with very limited legislative powers.
The real government is based in Brussels and Luxembourg, is entirely unlelected and is called the European Commission. The only body that can bring forward legislation in the EU is the Commission and, by virtue of bribery and other corrupt practices, it is able to manipulate the EU Parliament to nod through whatever it proposes, as was clearly demonstrated by the passage of the Aircrew Regulation.
The European Parliament and all of the individual member states' parliaments are just so much window dressing, designed to give the illusion of democracy. Consequently, the UK parliament can do nothing whatever to mitigate the adverse effects of EU legislation on GA and the 'Red Tape Challenge' is an utterly pointless distraction.