Anarchy In Britishland

Behind Enemy Lines, Gummint

Why do I giggle like a little girl when I read stories like this one?

Villagers are praising a fire that destroyed an ‘archaic’ toll booth that charged drivers 12p in cash only to cross the Manchester Ship Canal and caused frustratingly long traffic queues. Warburton bridge toll booth is suspected to have been reduced to ash by an arsonist who became fed up of waiting waiting to cross the bridge.

But wait!  The powers-that-be are not taking this lying down:

The booth’s owners, Peel Ports, are planning to replace the destroyed structure with a more modern toll.

…and I hope this one gets torched as well, especially if it’s an expensive modern one.  For a 12p (50c) toll?  FFS.

Anyone remember the spate of vandalism directed at speed cameras in Britishland a couple years back?  I do:

When Gummint has to put up cameras to catch the people who are vandalizing cameras, that’s when we’ll know we’re winning.

In the meantime back here in Murka, we can just fall back on the old (hypothetical, that is) question of whether one should use a rifle or shotgun instead of playing with matches;  and if a rifle, what caliber?  Myself, I tend to favor the .45-70 Government, but I’m prepared to listen to other suggestions.

4 comments

  1. I’d think that you would want to use a less-traceable weapon for such things.

    A 12 gauge with a very mainstream brand of ammo, for example.

  3. It turns out that the roadside robots are re- and de-programmable. Whether this can be done wirelessly using a cell phone or whether you have to physically jack in to a service port is not known to me. Some joker set up one of our town’s two to display “Hi” when a vehicle approaches; this lasted for two days and then it went dark and since the first week of May it has stayed that way.
    Whether you would have to bribe or otherwise suborn some Public Works dude for the info or if it is available on line somewhere, the fact remains that the beast is tameable.

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