Sunday, September 30, 2007

80 tons of tripe, and still counting

The news that the collected wit and wisdom of the EU now weighs in at 80 tons of print (per language!) ought to terrify you as much as it terrifies TMP.

That amount of detailed documentation covers impositions on every aspect of your life and means there are now so many rules, regulations and laws that any EU "enforcer" is pretty much guaranteed being able to find one or more breaches whenever it suits them.

We have all suspected for a long time now that any irritable policeperson examining a vehicle can almost certainly find something wrong with it (when did you last check your tyre pressures?) to cause the driver a lot of trouble. Simply requiring the driver to present documents at a police station (the so called "producer from") assures that Mr Plod has made him or herself felt in the life of an otherwise blameless subject.

Oops, I nearly said "citizen".

The process of politicians churning out endless law to empower the state to intrude and interfere has been out of control for quite a while now. Who wants start over and write a constitution of no more than ten pages?

Perhaps the first paragraph of which should limit employment by the public purse (central and local) to no more than 15% of the workforce. The proposition that the remaining 15% of bureaucrats are then required to reorganise the state around identifying and tackling the real priorities would be refreshing, don't you think? Top of the list being what to do with many millions of redundant former state employees, and their millions of square feet of vacant offices.

Otherwise Parkinson's law will always prevail, and the work of public bodies will expand to occupy the people and time available.

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