I have to admit to a certain amount of head scratching here. It's determined that we're ruled by incompetents so therefore we must pay more tax?
Europe is prosecuting Britain for consistently breaking air pollution laws and endangering people's health in urban areas. Legal proceedings against the government were started today by the EU environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, and could result in unlimited daily fines.
I agree that it isn't that much of a surprise that the median pecksniff who actually gains power over us is inefficient, willing to promise what cannot be delivered and is driven more by what retains his power than any thought of the wider interests of the body politic.
I'm also aware that the art of government is to charge me a great deal for things I don't in fact want while failing to deliver the things that I do actually both need and desire. While still charging me for failing. But what causes this bonce handling is the logic that, once government has been proven to be government, someone is going to come after my wallet again.
The British Government doesn't have any money of its own. It only has whatever if can extract from our hides now or, by borrowing, what it can extract from those of our children in the future. So when some bright spark says that it would be a lovely idea to sign up to some standard for PM 10 pollution, then fails as they were always likely to do, why is it that "the government" gets fined? We're the people who have paid for said bright spark, we're the people being poisoned and we're also the people who have to pay this fine for being poisoned because the bright spark signed us up.
Why isn't it the people who have failed who have to pay the fine, rather than the people they have failed?
Anyone?
