How to Label a Goat: The Silly Rules and Regulations That Are Strangling Britain

by Ross Clark

Brand new paperback edition. Have you ever thrown your arms up in despair while trying to complete an official form and asked yourself "Just what is the point of this?" You're not alone. This book exposes some of the most petty and bizarre rules and regulations which are blighting the lives of Britons today. From the 45 pages of instructions on how to correctly label a goat (or sheep) to the impact that being a deep-sea diver might have on your tax return. If it wasn't so serious, it would be quite funny. Among his other discoveries - A rugby club in Ilfracombe was so burdened by health and safety rules that it was forced to abandon its real-life bonfire and instead celebrate Guy Fawkes' night with a 'virtual bonfire' projected onto a screen. - Employers must not hold important meetings on 31 October - it might discriminate against pagans, who, of course, celebrate the festival of Samhain on that day. - A woman from Kilbride was given an ASBO forbidding her from answering the door in her underwear. A motorist in Waltham Forest, East London, was fined for parking on double yellow lines that were not even there when he parked his car. The lorry painting the lines had drawn around the stationary vehicle. All completely true and all contained, along with hundreds of others, in this eye-opening little book.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Marc Maitland · Rating 5 out of 5]

It really is scandalous that the Dickensian Circumlocution Office of Victorian times is not only alive and kicking in the 21st Century, but has become a self-perpetuating monster that our (nominal) legislators (Parliament, local authorities etc.) seem powerless to contro. It seems that, in the minds of these control-freak busyboides who seek to govern every minute detail of our lives, from the playground games children can play to the type of windows our homes can have, instead of governing to make society a better place, society is simply there to provide tunpot rule-makers with fodder to be ruled.



It would all be highly amusing were it happeing in Dickens' far-off world, but it is truly frightening that it is happening here and now, and most people don't have the vaguest idea that it is!



Britain used to govern a quarter of the World with a fraction of the pen-pushers that are now employed just to govern the U.K.