Would sharia law be preferable to the regime that our current ruling class has in store for us?
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December 20th, 2007 | 38 comments - (Comments are closed)
 A frosty reception awaits Santa Claus in Britain this year. It seems that the much-loved benefactor of children everywhere is, in fact, suspected of being guilty of a number of illegal practices. Greenpeace UK has accused Santa of ‘environmental terrorism’ by encouraging crass global consumerism without any effort to dispose of packaging and minimise waste. They have also attacked Santa for his record of pollution output and have demanded that he take steps to lower the carbon footprint of his activities. The complaint has prompted officials at the Department of the Environment to investigate Santa for possible breaches of the EU Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Directive, which makes the producers of goods responsible for their environmentally sound disposal. Further trouble can be expected from the Information Commissioner who has pointed out that Santa may be in breach of the Data Protection Act by keeping records of all the country’s children. In particular, his lists of who has been naughty and who has been nice constitutes a behavioural database which cannot be kept without the unambiguous, specific and informed consent of the subject. The Equality Commission has also weighed in with concerns about Santa’s employment practices. His policy of only working with elves is clearly discriminatory and leaves him open to prosecutions by pixies, faeries and goblins who are not being considered for employment due to their race. The Department of Work and Pensions is also investigating the work practices of Santa on the basis that, over the Christmas period, he demands that his elvish workforce work around the clock in order to meet the seasonal demand. This is a clear and unequivocal flouting of the EU Working Time Directive which limits the working week to 48 hours and could give rise to a further prosecution. Santa’s time-honoured habit of stopping for a drink of brandy in every household (and there are 25 million in the UK) will also bring trouble. According the Civil Aviation Authority, the alcohol limit for any pilot is 20 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood. Police forces nationwide have been put on alert for an overweight, elderly, bearded man at the controls of a nine-reindeer sleigh and, if spotted, to apprehend him immediately. Santa was not available for comment but a spokeself has said that Santa is seriously considering whether or not to fly over British airspace this year. December 16th, 2007 | 16 comments - (Comments are closed)
The smoking ban was a mere tasty morsel. It has roused the appetite of the beast without bedding it back down again. The hungry beast has drawn blood and it wants more:
Welcome to the latest phase of the old ‘public choice’ paradigm. You have to choose between freedom and prosperity. You have to choose between freedom and fairness. You have to choose between freedom and safety. And the wheels of the world turn round and round to the music of the rhythm of history. Okay. let’s gird our loins, saddle up and prepare for battle again but, this time, let’s make sure that we don’t go charging off in the wrong direction. It would be easy to lose this stage of the war and, as always, the odds are stacked against us. But lose we will for sure if attempt to fight it on the enemy’s ground and what I mean by that is accepting that there is a such a thing as a choice between freedom and health and then attempting to persuade people to choose freedom and to hell with their health. If the public believes that this is the choice they must make, then they will choose to be healthy and, before we know it, we’re standing around scratching our arses and wondering what went wrong while the triumphant, braying beast tramples everything in its path. We must not make the mistake of arguing that health does not matter. It does matter. As every exhortatory elderly relative has croaked at one time or another, health is the most important thing. But that is exactly why we need more freedom and less compulsion. The healthiest societies are the the most liberal and prosperous ones, while the unhealthiest are invariably the poorest and most statist and centrally planned prescriptions for health will be no more successful than centrally planned prescriptions for the economy. The public must hear, again and again, that the “choice” being presented to them by the likes of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics is vexatious, counterfactual and perverse. The beast will not stop. It will not change its mind, grow tired, get distracted or give up. The stakes are too high. But that is not the same as saying that it is unstoppable. We just have to make sure that we shoot its legs from under it. Nothing less will do. November 13th, 2007 | 55 comments - (Comments are closed)
Any suggestions as to a name? November 12th, 2007 | 56 comments - (Comments are closed)
If only we had a Samizdata Freedom-Fighter Award then I would resoundingly nominate this man:
And, while we are about it, perhaps we should have a ‘Posturing Political Prat Award’ as well. [P.S. For our US readers, ‘two fingers’ is the British version of ‘flipping the bird’ and a time-honoured gesture of defiance.] November 5th, 2007 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)
October 26th, 2007 | 49 comments - (Comments are closed)
Is no-one interested in saving the planet?
June 28th, 2007 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
June 26th, 2007 | 19 comments - (Comments are closed)
I’ve just heard the latest news Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low, Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low, Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low, They’d prosecute me if they can Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low, June 25th, 2007 | 32 comments - (Comments are closed)
A global warming update here from London at the tail-end of June where the temperature has dropped to 14 C (57 F) and the forecast for tomorrow is heavy rain and possible flooding. Proof that the world really is getting hotter! Curse you, man, and all your heavy industrial doings! June 25th, 2007 | 64 comments - (Comments are closed)
Electronic voting? Bring it on, I say:
You cannot possibly undermine something that is already on its death-bed so put it out of its misery already. June 24th, 2007 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
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