On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 10:31:50 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
wrote:

I blame the UK civil service.


Wrongly, in general. Laws in the UK are supposed to be clear,

"supposed"!!

What the UK public sees as legislation is the output from the UK civil
service.

and this
country has a major problem in translating eurowaffle
into regulations that are clear.

The Euro directives need no translation, often they are clearer than
Whitehall's poor attempt's at using the English language.
Whitehall English has been a joke for decades and has nothing to do
with UK's membership of the EU.

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.

Read a few copies of Private Eye and you will see that UK local
government has more than exceded 9 yards.


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.

rubbish.


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.

That's hard to believe. Did you ever wonder why most UK government
computer projects are a failure?
or why a company gets more contracts after a failure?

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,

the rules should match 100% an EU directive.

and are
indeed often largely ignored elsewhere. What a lousy system.

If you had ever looked at an EU directive you would have noticed
a) it was already translated into English
b) a dam site clearer than the rubbish that it is converted into by
Whitehall.
c) as I said elsewhere EU directives are sometimes the direct result
of English trade bodies. (the Recreational Craft Directive for
example)

Read any copy of Private Eye if you think there is no corruption in
UK.
--
Martin