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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Unfair!

Isn't there some sort of EU rule about unfair competition from governments? If so, surely British satirists will have to launch an action, because they simply cannot compete with the U.K.'s elected representatives (at every level). In today's newspaper I read that a local council wants to send out detailed -- and intrusive -- questionnaires in order to establish who the legal guardians of rubbish bins might be. This is, naturally, so that they can prosecute people for putting too much rubbish in the bins (or the wrong kind of rubbish). They blame it on Brussels -- reasonable I suppose -- but I doubt even North Koreans have to register their bins with the commissars. I don't really understand the thinking behind this, except that a general policy of creating crimes that it's hard to arrest and prosecute people for (eg, not shutting a rubbish bin properly) will improve the crime statistics, because these statistics are currently made up of crimes (eg, murder) that it's difficult to arrest and prosecute people for. Householder, particularly homeowners, are much better bet. Such people often try to get their children into good schools as well, it appears.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

2 comments:

brand midwife said...

Dave, when are you going to change your family name to 'Meldrew'?

Just curious:-)


Mark

Amanda Castleman said...

CD, in Seattle – on the Left Coast – we have recycling police, something surely worthy of a Python skit. But we also have a very simple monitoring system: most folks write their address on the bin.

Of course, numerous neighbors and construction workers abuse the cans. So I'm guessing any lawsuits could get quite amusing: "Your honor, those were NOT my spare ribs in the paper container. I am a vegetarian!"

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