Martin Brown wrote in message ...
In message , martin
writes
On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 07:37:00 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
wrote:


Nick Maclaren wrote in message ...
In article ,
martin wrote:
On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 09:23:16 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
Those of us with long memories will remember that it was no different
before we joined the EU,

Wrong. Even if you choose to believe that the quality of govt
regulations is no worse since accession to the EU, the
increase in the volume of regulations is beyond dispute.

The EU issues directives, in UK Westminster and Whitehall turns them
into regulations.
If one compares a directive with what Westminster turns it into, one
will see that Westminster is the entity generating a ridiculous
number of ambiguous regulations.

Don't be silly. Look at the current draft EU constitution for a model of
vagueness & ambiguity. The whole idea is to keep things nice & vague, to
avoid popular disquiet, until all of a sudden something has become part of
the acquis communautaire.

I blame the UK civil service.


Wrongly, in general. Laws in the UK are supposed to be clear, and this
country has a major problem in translating eurowaffle
into regulations that are clear. The continental tradition of
vague laws that the local bigwig & his friends can interpret
according to whim or the size of the bung is the way we are heading, but
luckily we haven't got the whole nine yards- yet.

The Whitehall drudges enjoy doing it like that though. Therein lies the
problem.

Nope. The problem lies in trying to stick together two alien
legal traditions.

UK interpretation of EU directives is usually gold plated with
every possible bell and whistle added to maximise cost and ambiguity.


See above.

Other EU countries seldom bother to enforce rules like the UK does.

True. Some other EU countries have a corrupted
political class, and even more corruption at local level than we have.
This, of course, is related to your point about
enforcement of rules. Now which way do you want to go?

Most of the stupid regulations are due to over zealous UK interpretation.



No, the rules largely stem from EU directives, and are
indeed often largely ignored elsewhere. What a lousy system.

--
Anton