Via the Daily Telegraph:
Police roadblocks are being set up to catch drivers who are breaking the law – by smoking at the wheel of their company vehicle. Council wardens and Essex Police will carry out random inspections across the county to look for evidence of illicit cigarette use. They will even hunt for cigarette butts in the ashtrays and smell the air inside the vehicles in order to clamp down on the outlawed practice. Workers were banned from smoking in their company cars as part of the Health Act introduced in 2006. The law made it illegal in all vehicles used primarily for business purposes by more than one person. Anyone caught breaking the law faces a £50 fixed penalty fine or a possible court conviction, which carries a £200 fine.
The culprits’ employers will also be informed and also be heavily fined.
It’s true, of course, that the original legislation dates from the era of Tony Blair, but there is little to suggest that David Cameron (a role model for a new and improved GOP, I’m sometimes told) is prepared to do much about such nanny state overreach. Not long after his government took office, it opened up a website inviting Britons to suggest which overly intrusive laws should be scrapped. As one would expect, this initiative was largely bogus, but even so it was striking that within a few days of its launch it was made clear that the public smoking ban was sacrosanct, off limits, not to be discussed. The people, it turned out, were only to be consulted when they could be relied upon to give the right response . . .
No surprises there.
Pardon the tangent to introduce my point...
So, one of my favorite political comedians is Lyndon LaRouche.
Here's a man who argues, in full seriousness, that every financial, political, military, and cultural problem in the world-- from Wall Street failures to the wars in the Middle East to the illicit narcotics trade-- is due to one all-powerful, all-enduring omnipotent super-villain.
Yup, you guessed it: the Queen of England.
?!?!? is generally the preferred response to this delusion. It makes as much sense as blaming all of today's problems on the Byzantine Empire, or the Klingons.
The reason I raise this example is because Andrew Stuttaford-- a writer I've read for years whom I admire, enjoy, and often vigorously agree with-- can be counted on to find every single thing that can possibly be wrong with the modern nation of Great Britain, and lay ALL of those faults at the feet of Tony Blair (even David Cameron's faults are, at their core, really Blair's faults, wink-wink).
Tony. Blair.
I'm not British, and I'm not a close student of their modern political & cultural history, but it seems to me that, Maggie Thatcher excepted, Britain has been on this road for *at least* two full generations now. Tony Blair didn't create these shifts; heck, he may not have even *accelerated* them. He certainly was *created* by them, however, I will grant that.
But Stuttaford's unending quest to lay all forms of British villainy at Blair's feet strikes me as a crusade equally quixotic as LaRouche's (or, to borrow another example, the brilliant Christopher Hitchens' spittle-inducing lifelong vendettas against all things Kissinger and Mother Theresa).
Geez, Andrew... is there ANYTHING you like about modern Britain? Can you ever say anything nice at all about it, or its prospects for the future?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLast time I was in England, I kept seeing lights flashing behind me as I drove about. Only later did I realize these were "Gatsos" photographing the license plate on my rental because I was speeding. I wasn't doing anything excessive, but I do come from Atlanta, where speed limits are benchmarks of opportunity.
I think it'll be about a century before the statute runs on all those tickets, so England's off-limits to me for the foreseeable future.
Which, given its nanny state tendencies, is probably just as well.
I read somewhere that, during his term in office, Blair managed to criminalize about one activity per day.
Dear Lord! How awful to live in a country where you have to constantly worry about infringing a constantly increasing set of petty tyrannical rules. I can't believe the Brits stand for this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere is a rule of thumb in government: whenever a government fails in its main job (law enforcement, roads, mail delivery, etc...) it will seek out every greater powers. We saw this with Carter; while our economy failed and foreign policy blew up, his HEW Director Califano was suing Iowa and Tennesse over things like male cheerleaders and all girls basketball.
It is no different in Europe, where the bureaucrats run rampant. Who knows? Perhaps there will be a Department of Funny Walks someday?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBritain's final chapter has been written. I don't hold out any long-term hope for them. They are in a death spiral, sadly. "Rule Britannia", I fear, will only be remembered fondly by a very few.
I wouldn't be surprised if we don't begin to see a pick-up in emigration from Britain to the US, Canada, Australia, and NZ as things get progressively worse in the mother country.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDoes law enforcement in England have time to look for people that are actually committing real crimes and causing problems? Or, are they busy babysitting full-time and only run off to clean up after the real crimes when they inconvienced by the interruption?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnimal Farm - more relevant today than ever...
"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 5
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