The Great Simpleton said:
Just for the record, foxes are a pest and I have seen the damage they do and they need to be controlled. However I don’t like fox hunting and I don’t see what pleasure people get in chasing the damned things round on horses and then watching them get ripped to pieces by a pack of dogs. I wouldn’t spend any time getting it banned and if repealing it takes more than 30secs of Parliamentary time then the police should just be told to ignore it, there is far too much work to be done.
To expand on the comment I left, I'd concur on fox-hunting - if there were a local referendum on repealing the ban, I'm not sure I'd bother voting, because it's not that important to me either way. But what if there were a separate referendum a month later on repealing the smoking ban - most smokers would vote to repeal but probably the rabidly anti-smoking faction (a third of non-smokers) would vote to retain it. And if there were then a referendum on legalising & taxing cannabis (putting it on par with alcohol or tobacco), the ten per cent of adults who enjoy cannabis would vote to repeal, but it would only require more then ten per cent of adults who don't smoke cannabis to keep it illegal, and so on and so forth.
Single issue referenda would amost certainly not achieve anything - I reckon that the only way to make this stick is to have an all-or-nothing yes-or-no referendum, i.e. to repeal the fox hunting ban, turn off the traffic lights, legalise cannabis and brothels, allow smoking in pubs again, allow shops to use pounds and ounces, allow people to drink alcohol on public transport, bring back patio heaters [plus add your own particular gripes to the list] etc.
That way there'd be something in it for everybody - including the misery guts who don't like other people enjoying themselves, who might be tempted by the idea of turning off the traffic lights and being allowed to use patio heaters again. The cannabis smokers (traditionally left wing) would align themselves with the pro-fox hunters (traditionall right-wing). Motorists and bus-users would form an alliance against the Greenies. Proper feminists and misogynists alike would support the legalisation of brothels, with faux-feminists and religious types in opposition.
Hopefully.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Smoking ban, fox hunting ban etc.
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7 comments:
What's the problem with traffic lights?
S_L, have you never noticed that when traffic lights are broken or turned off, that the traffic flows much more smoothly, there are no queues and drivers are more minded to give way to pedestrians?
No, but I know I roundabout I have to navigate on the drive home from work that could desperately do with some!
There is an aura about foxes. I accidentally hit one with my bumper and when I told of it, never heard the end of it. I was the ultimate in barbarity.
SL & MW. Turn off traffic lights now! Essentially they are automatic rationing of road space by some technobureaucracy which as usual thinks it knows best. I had this argument in my previous career as a highway Engineer. It didn't go down well with the local authoritiy fascists.
Near me, some years ago, they replaced a set of lights with a double mini roundabout and the traffic flows better to this day. You'd think they'd learn from this.
And yes, the 'shared space' experiments carried out in the Netherlands show that drivers do give way to pedestrians.
Next, cancel all speed limits.
S_L, be careful what you wish for - there's nothing they can't make worse (as L explains).
JH, I didn't know that. I thought most people were fairly indifferent to them.
L, as to speed limits, my thoughts are
a) 20 mph in residential areas, or whatever residents on each estate vote for,
b) on motorways etc a "two second rule" - if you are less than two seconds behind the car ahead, you get nicked (but if you are doing 100 mph on an empty motorway with good visibility, then what's the problem?) and
c) as a catch-all, the driver at the back of a crash is automatically assumed to be the guilty party.
There is so much more to foxhunting than the iconic images you see in the news. Please read the comments from a huntsman who realised the cruelty and did something about it.
http://www.huntinginquiry.gov.uk/evidence/pellow.htm
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