The law is an ass... especially in Britain!

Whichever country we live in, we rely on our elected officials to pass laws which allow us to live safe, happy lives. We all hear of laws that were passed many years ago and have never been repealed; silly laws like the one that makes it illegal for a woman in Florida to use a parachute on a Sunday or perhaps the one that still requires a London taxi to carry a bale of straw, and these are laws that you might think aren't likely to be enforced... but this is where, here in the UK, things start to get silly.

The last few years the British Government have taken it upon themselves to pass new laws and then seem to think that Joe Public will know about this without being told. The same seems to be the case with the police and local authorities who seem to be either unwilling or unable to enforce these new laws, instead picking the easy targets.

Let's have a few examples. A few years back it was made illegal to do your own electrical repairs in either the kitchen or bathroom without then having these repairs inspected by the local council. The first I knew about this law was about 6 months later when I stumbled across an article by Jeremy Clarkson (newspaper columnist and presenter of TV's Top Gear) lambasting this daft law. In recent weeks I've discovered that a new law comes into effect in September which will force me to put my 9 year old son on a booster seat in the car. Did I discover this as part of a major road-safety advertising campaign? No, I found out only because I had to go to Halfords to get a booster seat to take him to France!

In the case of the booster seat, I am perplexed at the lack of public awareness because of the way that we are being brainwashed on a daily basis into thinking that if we drive too fast we're going to kill everybody - the tag line is "Speed Kills" but this simple statement is only as accurate as saying "Death is Britain's number 1 killer"!!! There are already too many "road safety" laws which are not either properly enforced or even known about by British motorists who even now seem ignorant to the fact that you have to belt up in the back. You also don't have to drive very far to see the number of stickers (flags etc) stuck over the blue EU section of car number plates, something which is illegal but never seems to get dealt with. Even the typeface on new British number plates is something written down in law, but garages who are licensed to make these number plates and even the police ignore this law meaning that the vast number of number plates made in the last few years are actually illegal. Is anything done about this? No!

What laws are enforced though? The easy ones! Putting up a speed camera and fining anybody exceeding the speed limit by a couple of MPH is simple because it requires no effort. Ignore the fact that many speed limits in the UK are set too low (even driving too slowly can be dangerous!!!) and there are still a few of us out here who would rather watch the road than our speedo. Many speed limits in the UK are even illegal and if challenged unenforcable (but that's a different story!). Oh, and if you want to be environmentally friendly and get around your town quickly on a Segway forget it... it's illegal, even though those four wheeled invalid buggies that terrorise our pavements are completely legal.

More legal sillyness surrounds the way we measure things. It is illegal to sell food in Imperial units... Imperial units can be shown but must be less prominant than Metric units. Will local trading standard offices enforce this law? No! Weight limit signs on roads are supposed to be in Metric Tonnes but I've seen several which show imperial Tons (one which even shows both!) but will the local authorities fix this? No! But if you put up a sign that says "200 metres" below a roadworks sign then you'll get prosecuted. By the same basis, if a completely legal footpath sign is errected showing "km" or "metres" and you "vandalise" it by painting "miles" or "yards" over the top then you probably won't get prosecuted, instead you'll be labelled a hero by the "Metric Martyrs".

One final point of UK law which is particularly relevant to blogging... the UK liable law. If I say something bad about somebody then I would expect that person to be able to sue me for it. Except that there is one problem here in the UK and that I could lose the case even if what I say is true.

Why do us Brits put up with high petrol prices?

I've been toying with the idea of blogging for a while... I've always got something I want to rant about but never quite got around to it, until now.

So, why this particular subject? Well, I've just had a 2 week vacation and spent it driving to various locations around Western Europe... after a short hop through the Channel Tunnel I took my car to the nearest filling station and topped it up. In the space of 2 weeks I managed to clock up about 5000km and so clearly filled up the car a number of times and the average price of Diesel (which I switched to about a year back on cost grounds) seemed to remain constant in each of the countries I visited... the cheapest being about €1.08/l in France with the highest being about €1.22/l. Converting that back to the UK£ means I was paying between £0.73/l and £0.82/l, much better than the £0.95/l I'd been paying in the UK prior to my departure. So, imaging my shock when I started passing filling stations on my return showing the price teetering at £1/l.

So, what's the excuse for all of this? We're being told that the "war" in the Middle East is to blame, but if this is the case then why didn't I see price increases over the same period in France, Germany and Italy? High fuel taxes in the UK are the most likely blame. Because we live on an island our government can happily force us to pay more on the grounds that it will encourage us to "reduce traffic" and "help the environment"... we can't just driver over the border and fill up in a lower-taxed country (unless of course you're in Northern Ireland). The general public also doesn't get so much opertunity to compare prices... it's not as if we can buy on-line the same way as we can with DVD's and electrical goods. I do sometimes wonder if the choice to stay out of the Euro also doesn't help - but that's a subject for a different rant!

As a country, we put up with this. Why? We don't seem to have any alternatives. A few years back there was a massive protest - as a result of blockades fuel stations ran out of supplies and the government eventually had to sit up and listen. For a a very short while there was some action on the price... but only until the government could draw up new laws meaning that in the future it would be illegal and/or difficult for the public to take such action again and now the price continues to rise.

So who is actually benefitting from all of this? I doubt that the environment benefits because we all still need to use our cars because public transport in the UK is so poor. Traffic levels don't benefit either for the same reason. The government benefits because as the price of oil increases, so does their tax revenue from sales. High street prices are pushed up because of transport costs and the government benefits more through increases in VAT takings. Higher costs mean that people want to earn more... with the effect that more income tax and national insurance is paid out, again benefiting the government. So, what do we get out of this?

Well, what we do get is the worst transport system in Europe, one of the highest costs of living and probably the longest working hours too. So, why do we put up with it?

Well, look at history. The last time we as a nation rebelled against our rulers was in the 1600's when the royal family at the time was forcably removed... but within a few years they were re-instated! There is clearly no hope for Britain!