Monday, 10 October 2011

Civilisation.

Do I need to make a post about the man in Glasgow who was held and aggressively questioned by the police for taking a picture of his young daughter in a shopping mall? It was against the mall operator’s regulations. Or the man in Nottinghamshire who was fined £75 for brushing his dog in a public park and ‘leaving dog hair on the ground?’ It was against the council’s regulations.

Do I need to rant about a society being drowned in a rising sea of stupid, petty over-regulation? Or lament the fact that the good old British bobby is developing a very big body with a very small brain? Should I offer it as one more justification for becoming increasingly alienated from it all?

There wouldn’t be any point, would there? It’s life. You get through it. You ogle the gadgets and the shiny things, and then you die. What the hell?

And I just read that the Blackberry phone network failed today through a fault at some technical centre in Slough. Ha! I wonder whether October 10th will become established as a new commemorative day to add to Columbus Day (US,) Thanksgiving Day (Canada,) and Health and Sports Day (Japan.)

Failed Blackberry Day (Europe, the Middle East and Africa.)

Where will it end?

2 comments:

Maria Sondule said...

Wow, those are pretty stupid regulations. I think it's sort of psychological, because it makes people feel useful when they enforce things. And these are easiest to enforce.

JJ said...

Not only over here though, Maria. A correspondent of mine in Cleveland, Ohio told me how she was ordered by the local authority to rectify her crooked back fence or face a fine. And her neighbour was threatened with legal action for having a bare patch on her lawn.

As far as I can tell (on scant evidence I admit) Australia seems to be the world champion of this kind of thing. But I might be wrong.

The shopping mall changed its policy, by the way.