In today’s Britain what is not expressly permitted is likely soon to be banned. Along the way we are constantly threatened with ‘tough’ new penalties:

£80 is the fine for speeding - overstaying by a minute your time at a parking meter; or getting stuck in a traffic jam at a controlled junction
£80 is the fine for emptying your waste bin onto the street -or dropping a single cigarette butt
£80 is also the on the spot fine (with no fear of getting a criminal record) for shoplifting - where a competent shoplifter will walk out with twice that value on each visit to a Central London store.

Is there a word which might sum up the loss of any sense of proportion? If there isn’t could anyone come up with one?

The old word greed does for me, the government with their hands deep in our pockets again.

BTW the saddest thing I’ve heard in a while was some young female announcer talking about an upcoming documentary. “In America”, she said, almost with a sense of incredulity, “a person can’t be tried for the same crime twice. It’s called Double Jeopardy, etc ....”. A sudden wave of despair overcame me at the realization of how much England had changed, dearly-won liberties being picked off one by one ....... ah enough, aldi!

It’s funny you should mention this idea of a word needed for a lack of proportion. I was thinking to myself just yesterday that my sense of pride and accomplishment at cleaning out the killer rogue dust bunnies living in the cables behind my computer was way greater than was appropriate and there should be a word for this.

aldiboronti - 04 June 2007 06:47 AM

… dearly-won liberties being picked off one by one

You’re not alone, aldi. The same things are happening here and I feel the same despair. As someone who was a protest marcher back in the sixties, I can’t help but feel that part of the blame is with me. I should be rioting in the streets over what is happening here. I’m reminded of something I read years ago… “We have the government we deserve, because we allow it to be.”

Some of these fall under “jobsworth”. Jobsworthery? It’s the law and must therefore be enforced however ridiculous

Disparity?