The right to evaluate risk for oneself
Mark Steyn has almost certainly violated (some new) English law by publishing the following (via Five Feet of Fury).
As they say over there, it’s Health & Safety gone mad, innit? Or as a lady put it after the funeral, as we were discussing the fracas, “There’s only one thing that annoys me more than Health & Safety gone mad, and that’s when people say, ‘Ooo, it’s Health & Safety gone mad.’” I know what she means. In Britain, the distillation of any daily grievance into a handy catchphrase seems to absolve one of the need to do anything about it. As long as they can grumble the agreed slogan, they’ll put up with ever more absurd incursions on individual liberty. No state can ensure its citizenry against all risks, although in Nanny Bloomberg’s New York City and hyper-regulated California they’re having a jolly good go. And that’s the point: The goal may be unachievable, but huge amounts of freedom will be lost in the attempt. The right to evaluate risk for oneself is part of what it means to be a functioning human being.
Silver lining: It turns out all you have to do to get kicked out of the EU is go bankrupt. Britain is closer to safe harbour than I had suspected.
That said, there are rocks at the harbour mouth; Greece is not the only European country with a political class so shy of responsibility they cede national sovereignty they do not own to a power they have imagined into being for this purpose.
When the European Commission placed Athens under EU supervision last week, Greece was almost bankrupt. Brussels has forced the Greek government to present a plan to drastically reduce its budget deficit from 13% to 3% by the end of 2012. The plan will cost the Greeks blood, sweat and tears. It includes a freeze on civil service wages and the postponement of the retirement age. Brussels has invoked new EU powers under Article 121 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allow it to reshape the structure of Greece’s pensions, healthcare, labor market and private commerce.
At some point, I have to stop reporting news from England: White Cliffs of Dover to be sold to the French to help reduce Government's debt
The Port of Dover is being recommended by Government advisers for sale to the French authorities. It is one of a string of public assets which have been earmarked for privatisation as the Government battles with a record £830billion national debt.
The proposal for the port has prompted outrage.
"Outrage." I am certain that will have the blighters quaking in their boots.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 9, 2010 08:24 AM
I posted a link to the video I found at Blazing Cat Fur.
http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-being-offended.html
Posted by: OregonGuy at February 9, 2010 02:05 PM
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at February 9, 2010 02:05 PM
