Wednesday 3 October 2007

Dog End Wardens

It's never ending, isn't it? A few days ago I posted about new Highway Code regulations that look set to stop folks from smoking while they drive their own cars.

Of course, it's been illegal to smoke in company vehicles - unless the smoker is the only person who ever uses the vehicle - since this country's ridiculous smoking ban came into force a few months ago. But how many people would expect that law to be enforced by a Dog Warden, of all people?

Lorry driver Leonard King certainly didn't, and paid for his lack of insight with a £260 fine, according to the Daily Mail. Yes, I know, he broke the law, pathetic though that law is, and a fine may well be in order. It's not the fine that bothers me, it's the folks who made it possible.

Apparently, "A spokesman for the council in Conwy - the town where the offence took place - said its three dog wardens were spearheading enforcement of smoking laws and had issued four fixed-penalty notices. He said police community support officers would soon also be given the task. "

Dog wardens?? Well, that's a novelty - bet it's been a long time since you saw one of them spearheading anything at all, eh? And as for the PCSOs, those would be the same kind of staff who aren't allowed to fish a drowning child out of water and must run away if their decrees are resisted, right? But I see it's ok for them to hound respectable citizens for lighting up. Nothing like going after the easy targets, is there?

What has happened to the UK? Dog wardens grassing up smokers, cardboard coppers, logged telephone calls, CCTV on every corner - doesn't all this sound just a little bit sinister? Add in the proposed ID cards and DNA databases and it starts to sound more than a little bit sinister.

Not long ago, this was a free country, but that fundamental aspect of life in the UK is being eroded at a frightening pace. In just a few short years those freedoms will be gone, or be so seriously constrained as to be meaningless.

Something must be done, but I'm damned if I can see what. Revolution really isn't in the British character, and anyway would probably be quelled by brigades of highly trained combat librarians - egged on by power mad dog wardens, no doubt. Emigration has its attractions, but this is my country - why should I be driven out by the Health Fascist contingent and other assorted loonies?

For now, there seems to be nothing for it but passive resistance. Joy.

Billy Seggars.

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