We hear the ritual noises from the provincial government in London, but the result is this - it always is. Politicians talk the talk, but they do not understand the dynamics of regulation and have little knowledge of enforcement (the handmaiden of regulation). Besides, the majority of our business and economic legislation now comes from the EU, over which the provincial government has no control.

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Never have done and never will. That sums up the situation exactly.Dr. North,when you talk about referendums and your lack of enthusiasm for one, this article explains very clearly why.When we leave the EU.,we will still have the problem of the Sir Humphrey in all departments of the State,how do we cull them,because that is the only way this Country can be made to work properly in the future.

to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail

expecting a central governmen to deregulate the way we intend, which is cancelling laws, is wishful thinking.

politicians and the bureaucracies that surround them will only produce more rules, not less.

The result of this will be setting up a host of QUANGOs, some based on the EU regional plan, to advise on deregulation.

An end to red tape, is that all they think is needed?

Even if the braindead shills [£&**wit Politicians] possessed enough nous [which they do not], we all of us, here on this blog know the real and impenetrable barrier to real change, it is just not going to happen until the Berlaymont vice is released.

And,

What if......an ominous nightmare [but infinitely preferable to the walking zombie zone we all inhabit now], it is this, if we did withdraw from the embrace of the EU, would our Executive be up to the challenge of governing a sovereign nation once more?

What if indeed..........
Our sham 'government' - is the barrier to the progress this country could make but they stymie, prevaricate and stifle real entrepreneurship and industry and us, the people of course. Instead, concentrating on regulating, prosecuting and keeping the people in check, afeard of unleashing the real potential of this nation - once the shackles were unfettered - and of course keeping 'em in check means keeping them on the state payroll: as apparats or dependent on handouts.

What we have now is a nation under an induced cosh - a mass hypnosis if you like.

Unfortunately similar in method as they [our caring councils and the dauntingly dispassionate and cold blooded inhumanist NHS] do to our seniors in these Godawful homes and wards, in their case it is chemical.

In the political sense, this cosh - comes in the form of; a nannying state, dumbed down education and all washed down with the mass media tranquilizers - happy sop, for the saps.............yes soon the greatest show in the Universe[?].

Olympics coming up, God in heaven set me free from the rose tinted bollox of participating totalitarian blocs and their competitive grimacing, straining drug addled 'stars' competing for a lump or disc of base alloyed metal.
Entertainment for the gimps and how the beeb luv it all - kinnel.


A bonfire of the executive and a rocket up -our so called representatives is needed. If only the people would stop electing the prats, that would be a good start.

Raedwald, in a post on localism, remarks:
"UK government is stuck firmly in a wartime model of central command and control".

I think he has voiced a valuable insight. Without wishing to put words into his mouth, it seems to me that, even after two thirds of a century ...

... "For you, Tommy, ze War isn't over".

I do not adopt this fake foreign accent in order to snipe at our continental friends. My jibe is aimed solely at the organisation of the UK. It's time our masters loosened their grip on those whom they purport to serve.

See http://raedwald.blogspot.com/2011/07/lo ... rland.html

Am I correct in understanding that :
- what actually comes out of Brussesl tends to be relatively vague and general
- Johnny Foreigner, sorry, our continental brethren implements the absolute minimum required to comply (and then probably ignores even that)
- in the UK, some over-enthusiastic civil (non-)servant takes what Brussels sends, gold-plates the living daylights out of it and passes it to a tame parliament to make into law.

I guess my question is, given a sufficiently motivated government, wouldn't it be possible to retroactively "lead-plate" all these Brussels dictats, to replace their implementation in UK law with an absolute minimum required for compliance ?

Obviously, this is only an interim measure before getting out of the whole damfool business, but is it not a possible immediate mechanism for relief ?

Absolutely. The Man from the Ministry is still as right as he was then even when he is demonstrably wrong. We are on a war footing and have been since 1939. We may not have nationalised manufacturing and all the rest any more but through regulation and legislation the British economy is still being set by the Government, if not in Westminster then in Brussels.

Liberista in the comments make a number of good points too - the competition between cantons keeps things in check as much as localism does. The only competition between counties the UK has is who can waste the most money. There is an inbuilt aversion to true competition to our politics and governance and things have got fat, lazy and wasteful as a result.

Look upon the EU as a form of government where officials call the shots and politicians are well paid to play games and create the illusion that the populace have some sort of control.

I suggest this is a model of government seen as ideal by most people in our three main parties, HoC and HoL, the Civil Service, local government, QUANGOs, NGOs. That's the reason for the gold-plating, it's a heaven sent opportunity to do things they way they want to anyway. If we had a political establishment motivated to sand blast EU regulations rather than plate them in any way, we'd wouldn't have the same problems and we'd have been out of it by now. I think it's far too easy to blame everything on the EU and overlook the related problems we have in the UK.