Landplanningassociates:Worse than that, I have noticed an alarming Stalinist attitude growing in all public "service" fields, following the lead of our current Labour central government. It is reported in the newspapers today that a young woman has been fined £75 by the "Environmental Crimes Unit" of a local authority (Environmental Crimes - Ha ! Can you believe it ? !
) because, when walking along eating a sausage roll, she went to put a small piece in her child's mouth and it dropped to the floor, where pigeons promptly disposed of it in a couple on minutes.
But two - TWO ! - jobsworths on the prowl from the Environmental Crimes Unit immediately stopped her and threatened her with arrest when she refused to give her name, then issued a fixed penalty ticket for £75. Patently bloody absurd ! These jobsworths contribute absolutely NOTHING to the prosperity or safety of the country or its law-abiding citizens, nor to the ability of people to enjoy their lives. It's nothing to do with litter - it's all about throwing weight around and showing us who's boss.
Yes, but she was an easy touch. If it were a group of "hoodies" I bet that the incident would have been ignored. It's not just council officials that are two faced:
Same attitude on the railways that I resigned from some years ago (fearing for my safety, having been pushed down the stairs at Alexandra Palace station). I was on my own. I had been working thus for a least a year - the "management" having decided that Inspectors could do double the trains if out singly, rather than as doubles. However, they were concerned about safety (or more that if we were assaulted, this being a greater possibility when being on your own, it would result in increased sick leave) so we had training in "conflict avoidance". In a nutshell, this meant that if we found a scroat with no ticket, particularly if there was more than one or a group, we were to just ask them to write their name and address on a piece of paper (looks better for other passengers that you seem to be "doing something") then withdraw, preferably to the next carriage. The name and address would no doubt be false, so it was never followed up. For non-conflict situations e.g. females, business commuters "the suites", and families the full penalty fares legislation was operated.
Unfortunately I see no end to this, because as a nation most of us are too compliant. Would the French ever allow their government to bring in legislation to prevent peaceful protest outside their legislative chamber? or would they, once they took action to blockade oil depots due to fuel price hikes, sit back and allow their government to bring in rules to prevent this happening again?
We could change things. For example, if 50% of motorists with parking fines appealed instead of the 0.5% the system would completely breakdown. Or if many hundreds submitted separate applications to lawfully protest outside the House of Commons they would not be able to cope.
I am coming more and more to the conclusion that as bureaucrats have brought in all this legislation and paperwork, the only way to fight is by using the bureaucracy and paperwork that these minions flourish under against them.
David
Long ago, below an picture of a 4-masted sailing ship in a heavy storm was added: "A ship in a harbour is safe, but that's not what a ship is designed for"