Anguish

This morning on the radio I heard that the was going to be about 2000 prisoners released early to relieve the overcrowding. The conservatives are saying this is typical of a government who can't manage anything.
My view is that the prisons are so full because there are 400 plus more laws to break (since Labour came to be government). This government has got into the habit of "if we can't control it, we'll legislate for it". So, if you are doing something that there isn't a law letting do it or a law not letting you do it, then if the government doesn't like what you are doing, they will legislate against it so there will be a law for you to break (and you'll go to prison), and if they do like what you are doing they will legislate so you can only do it their way, which is often not the way you were doing it in the first place and so you'll break the law and go to prison. Either way, you can on doing it your way, you are likely to end up in prison.
This may seem a bit of an exaggeration, but take motorcycle helmets for example. Back in 19?? it was fine to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, or with a helmet, the choice was yours. Then because there were a few bad accidents, the government decided that the motorcyclist should ALWAYS wear a helmet, now no choice. They decided from a study done in the USA which showed that a motorcyclist involved in an accident had a better chance of survival if he/she was wearing a helmet. The problem comes when the accidents in the test study doesn't really happen in the UK. Don't get me wrong, the study was good, just its application to create legislation I find abhorrent. In small incidents and accidents, the helmet itself can cause more injury. Consider the average helmet weighs about 5kgs. Thats an extra 5kgs the neck has to deal with in keeping the head attached to the body. In some accidents the neck has been snapped because the rider was wearing a helmet. Now I could go on and debate the reason for and against wearing helmets on motorcycles, but this isn't the time or place. What I am trying to put across is the fact that these people that the minority of the population elect to govern us don't really know what they are doing.... surprised?
I feel strongly that if people are educated or informed of the relavent facts about whatever they are interested in, so they can make an informed choice. The leaders and politicians harp on about choice, but then dont give us any! Another example. There has been a steady increase in accident of motorcycles. Solution, make the test harder to create a better motorcyclist. But, the over accident rate has been going up. Why not educate drivers of all vehicles how other road users use the road. How many car driver know that a lorry or bus will pull over to the left to turn right, at a roundabout for example? How many road users know that motorcyclist are allowed by law to go down the outside of a traffic cue, if the way is clear? I was taught these when I took a motorcycle training course, but wasn't taught these for driving my car. Need I say more...