Certainly, we need government, no one has managed to show that anarcho capitalism works as yet. But unfortunately, once we have government we have the sort of people who like to be in government. This might mean that the deal is not overall beneficial. For example, we’ve one in Scotland who has made it illegal to show Shetland as a box on a map.
Well, illegal if you’re the public sector and you don’t have a good reason to do so. So, you know, blithering idiocy as law, Shetland not fitting on the page of any map of any reasonable detail being a good enough reason. Which is why it is traditionally posed as a box on a map.
New rules barring public bodies from putting Shetland in a box on official documents have come into force.
Islands MSP Tavish Scott had sought to change the law to ban the “geographical mistake” which “irks” locals, by amending the Islands (Scotland) Bill.
The bill’s “mapping requirement” has now come into force, although it does give bodies a get-out clause if they provide reasons why a box must be used.
Mapmakers argue that boxes help avoid “publishing maps which are mostly sea”
So, what we get is, this is now illegal:
And this is legal:
Aren’t we so lucky having government taxing us to make the world a better place?
Only the Scottish Conservatives spoke out against the move at Holyrood, with MSP Peter Chapman calling it “impractical” and warning it would reduce the amount of detail in maps due to changing scales.
This was backed by the Ordnance Survey mapping agency, which said inset boxes avoid “publishing maps which are mostly sea”.
A spokesman for the company said: “The Shetland Islands are approximately 245km (152 miles) from the Scottish mainland, from the most northerly part of the Shetland Islands to John O’ Groats, and 690km (428 miles) from the most southerly point of the Scottish and English border.
“It would be virtually impossible to print a paper map, with any usable detail, of this vast geography.”
Quite so, government is just the name for what we do together – losing our minds and splurging the wealth of the nation on pissant stupidity.
Why, yes, you can do a lot of things on that empty blue space on the map, shopping lists, games of tic-tac-toe, tear off and turn into spit-wads.
Could be worse, could be Ethanol.
Does anything stupid the National Socialist Party of Scotland do surprise people?
Rockall is also Scottish territory. I think we should insist that it is included in it’s true position on all maps of Scotland.
Put the islands on a big sheet of blue paper and charge £50 for it. Refer complaints to the Islands (Scotland) Bill. Job done.
‘… no one has managed to show that anarcho capitalism works as yet.‘
Has anyone shown it does not?
It has not been tried yet. Nobody has been allowed to try. Government stops anyone trying. Can’t think why.