Creeping Reliance On The State...

I wondered, while writing yesterday's post, why we are so passive, so eager to acquiesce to authority - or in the case of those uniformed brain-donors, what looks like authority.

And the more we do it, the further they will go. In the comments, Mud in the Blood points to this horrific story:

Ian Taylor, assistant head of parking services at Tendring, said staff had already been out in the areas involved making an assessment of the hot spots to see what needs tackling.

“What we are specifically looking at is anti-social parking; that is parking which does not necessarily contravene any of the regulations but annoys and upsets people and can cause friction in the community,” he said.

Yup, you read that right - there aren't enough real parking offences in Tendring, so they are out dealing with instances of legal parking that 'annoys' people.

“There are no easy short term answers to some of the issues we face but with support and co-operation we can win over hearts and minds.”

Aren't we supposed to be doing that in Iraq, not Tendring? And it's really hard to see how this is supposed to be doing that, given that:

Any vehicle parked anti-socially will get a notice telling the owner exactly what the problem is.

Notices can be issued by PCSOs, Civil Enforcement Officers, Street Wardens and authorised officials – and they can follow up with a visit to the motorist’s home.

Yup, you read that right too - a mouth-breather in uniform will come to your home if you persist in carrying out your offending annoying behaviour.

WTFF..?

Photos will be taken of incidents and kept on a database making it possible to identify repeat offenders.

If people persist they may then be given a Fixed Penalty Notice as a last resort.

They may be given a FPN for something which isn't against the law? How the hell is that going to work? Are the authorities going to try to enforce it regardless?

Seriously, when are we going to stand up and say 'Enough is enough. You are paid to enforce the byelaws, and keep the streets tidy, and nothing else!'

Because if we don't, the ultimate result is likely to be a step backwards, as noted by Patently:

"The problem was, apparently, that the school "had no written medical procedures for staff"

Evelyn Leslie, headteacher at Offerton High School , said there had been no medical policy in place at the time of 11-year-old Sam Linton's death in December 2007.

This is pathetic. I blogged long ago that rules and procedures are not enough. This is yet another example; if someone can't work out that a child who is going grey and unable to breathe needs an ambulance NOW then the existence of a policy statement in folder 5, tab 7 stating that an the teacher should notify the designated emergency medical coordinator (see folder 3, tab 2, section 5.6.2 for the current holder of this post) who should immediately call an ambulance is not going to be much help."

Quite.

But it's what will happen more and more frequently with a populace used to obeying authority, never questioning, always unthinkingly following rules. When those rules are absent, they are paralysed.

I don't want to live in such a country. Do you?