Sunday, February 28, 2010

It's just not British.

Our government and legal system have sunk to levels of pettiness and spiteful vendetta that you'd expect from some tyrant-run banana republic somewhere.

This week they have imprisoned a pub landlord for allowing people to smoke in his pub. Even though 90% of his customers are smokers and even though he does not sell tobacco and does not actively encourage smoking and even though his pub is private property, not a State owned institution and even though he is a publican, not a policeman.

He, like all publicans, is expected to enforce the prohibition of a legal substance on his own private property. The antismokers claim there has been 'widespread acceptance' of the smoking ban. In fact, the reason publicans observe the ban is that they will get six months in jail if they don't.

This week, a woman who found an ancient coin when she was nine years old has had it forcibly removed by the State who claim it as 'treasure'. She will get no compensation. What she did get was a fine and a criminal record.

Now I read of a man who claims to be able to heal cancers, who is being prosecuted under a law that states that the advertising of cancer cures is illegal. He is not advertising. The case hinges on a website full of testimonials by others. It's not his website, he doesn't run it and was not aware of its existence. His patients set it up. Patients who, in all cases, were under standard medical care throughout and whose doctors were surprised at their recoveries. The faith healer made no attempt to dissuade anyone from seeing medical doctors. Whether he can really do what he claims is not the issue here. He is being prosecuted for something he has not done, just because his claims offend the State.

'British' used to mean 'fair play'. Not any more. It now seems to be associated more with 'spite', 'malice' and 'petty officialdom'. Those are just a selection. If you want to know why there is an epidemic of high blood pressure in the UK, just browse the UK newspapers.

The country has gone to pieces. The worst part is, hardly anyone seems to have noticed.

In five minutes it will be the first of March. It's still snowing. I'm climbing the walls here!

6 comments:

Regina Richards said...

I wish I could say it's only the British going mad, but I think the rest of the world in close on your heels.

heyjude said...

or leading you!

astrologymemphis.blogspot.com said...

The entire world is racing to hell and no one can find the brakes. If you ask me, we need a good 2012 doomsday so we can start over from scratch, hopefully keeping in mind what's really important in life.

Romulus Crowe said...

Regina, Heyjude - I think our government is showing the way. Lunacy is the only thing they've managed to be world leaders in.

We have a tradition of tolerating eccentrics but it's only recently we've started voting for them.

Romulus Crowe said...

SW- a doomsday is what the Global Warmers are hoping for, so they can say 'See? Told you!' and then take over.

Another Boston tea party is more likely to be useful...and another Cromwell for the UK.

tom sheepandgoats said...

These type of things always remind me of people who can't begin to solve any real problems, yet they want to feel relevant, so they redouble their efforts on petty matters. The older I get, the more I am surprised to see Parkinson's Law, far from being the spoof it purports to be, become reality.

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