The Great Repeal Bill and FM Radio

Those of us who have watched with horror as the Labour government, to applause from Brussels, has turned Britain into a land of restricted freedom, where you can be arrested for a large number of non-crimes, and detained without trial for months, where many perfectly normal activities are forbidden as a sop to some whining bunch or other, or simply to make it clear, by the arbitrary exercise of power, who is in charge, where people feel obliged to get someone’s permission before doing anything, where everyone thinks they are entitled, not only to opine about what others choose to do, but to determine whether or not they should be allowed to do it, where neighbours spy on neighbours, and report them to the press if they disapprove of anything they do, in the knowledge that the media can be relied on to make their lives unliveable...

Those of us who have seen this happen were much cheered by the stated intention of the new government to repeal many of these laws in an attempt to make Britain a freer and better place once more, and I, at least was cautiously glad to hear that they intended to ask country- this is a democracy, after all- what laws they wanted them to have a look at, with a view to expunging them from the statute book.

There are little things and big things that need to be reviewed, from smoking bans to 90 day detention and beyond, but top of the list (as reported in the Telegraph, top of more than one list) is delaying the suspension of analogue radio transmissions. This is very depressing, and shows once again that the problem with democracy is the demos; as many politicians and bureaucrats in the EU say quite openly, if we went around listening to the people who pay us to represent them we’d never be able to do what we want. But I’m a democrat, with all the consequences, so if that’s what people are most concerned about, the government should take them seriously.

It’s still depressing, though; we armchair revolutionaries were hoping for something better.

*Down here on the farm blogging is by a stick thingy of very limited speed and volume, so there will be no links and no photos until September.