I live down by Bakersfield, Cal., in Kern County. I hope that none of those rare Brussels Orchids, those hothouse flowers, are ever faced with riding the Greyhound on that looong drag up Interstate Five. They'll probably cause the bus to crash by always running forward to pester the driver to pull over before he passes out and kills everyone aboard.

And to think we used to call the old USSR central planning committee stupid and incompetent. The mind set in Brussels is the same, disband NATO, leave the stupid bastards to fend for themselves.

We have had a number of discussions with UK ministers on this and they've made sympathetic noises

What, noises as in they've lifted the head out of the trough long enough to go "OINK"

Next thing you know the British will be driving on the wrong side of the road.

Now I know why they call it the "European Union".

Another perfect example of why it would be so easy to take over Europe.

The real problem would be finding someone stupid enough to take it.

Let's see now....yesterday I drove (on business) from home to Lloydminster, from 'Lloyd back to Edmonton and from Edmonton back home again. 600 kms. on the new Camry.

Under the EU's new "Pussies 'R Us" formula, I think I would qualify for about a month off work....Oh wait a minute, I forgot.....I'm self employed!

Every late afternoon a train is stopped at a crossing, and the crew have to wait for a taxi coming from Lethbridge to Warner to replace the crew. Wonder what the cost/year is for that. Maximum hours are reached at Warner. Distance from Warner to Leth, about 50k.
Can't have those poor union guys working another hour.

Socialism is good to fat lazy bus drivers.
Bus riders; not so good.

I'd like to get a statement from Miss Anne Elk.

Regulation for the sake of regulation will be the end of western civil society....if its legislators do not legislate dhimmitude into law first.

Ah, the UK...and it just keeps getting worse.

As reported with cell pictures in the Sun.

A London bus stops, the passengers have to get off, the driver places his prayer rug on the floor of the bus and PRAYS to Mecca.

Yes folks it happens and YES he is a Muslim.

Coming our way soon????

Ah Europe. All trucks are governed at 90kmh and any trip longer than 60km is considered a "long distance" trip and is (as you read) governed by a different rule book. It's a sad little joke really.

European drivers will tell you, if you ask them that the expanse of North America and the distances which have to be covered are a daunting experience when they first start. North American drivers, who complain about Draconian rules should do some reading on how they would have to do their job if they were operating in the EU sphere.

Then again, driving a large bus or truck on the goat paths that comprise much of Europe's highway system would certainly be a draining experience for many from NA. Heck, just driving a rental car can be an adventure!

Having said that, it is truly sad to see how the mighty have fallen.

Stoopid with a capital S -- oh wait a minute!

It is increasingly obvious that the European Union is becoming governed by fashisoids that are already regulating the running of business and lives of people, though on the whole they don’t seem to mind for now.

A Portuguese neighbor just visited his native land and told a story about a small restaurant in a village. This place operated for something like 50 years without any problems. Recently it had to close down when the EU supreme paper pushers came by and ordered the owner to shut it down.

Clearly driving a bus for 31 miles must be exhausting. The drivers should really take a few days of after the slave labor like practice.

It would be a bit of a bugger logging a million miles there, eh ,wat?

I give the EU, the organization not the separate states, 10 years tops before it collapses under its own weight. It seems bound and determined to make itself obsolete.
It'll start with individual member states demanding exemptions and threatening to pull out.
(31 miles?! That wouldn't even get you from Vancouver to Chilliwack (about 1 1/2hrs max, let alone Hope.)
I can't understand why politicians are knuckling under to the EU's inanities.

This is no different that what I've run into in union shops.

I'm painting a ticket booth at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton. Union shop, oh baby. They hired my company because their -union- painter took three months to paint an office. As in one (1) office.

The booth is 8ft tall, I'm sitting on the roof painting the trim. Union thug drives up in his golf cart (that he seems part of, in a fully Borg kind of way) asks me what I'm doing. Just to be annoying, I JUMP off the roof and say "Painting. Why?" His eyes bulge out of their sockets, his face goes completely red, and he drives off.

Later I discover this genius has filed a grievance because I was working on the roof without a full scaffold and safety harness. On a ticket booth.

Another day a colleague and myself (Royal College of Painters, y'know. Very prestigious,..) are spraying stain on a building. We start at 8AM before the union weenies are done their coffee, we kick butt until noonish when the big kahuna shop steward and a couple union thugs drive up in their golf carts. They ask us when we are going to take a break. My answer, obviously: "When we get tired." Steward wants to know why we aren't taking the scheduled breaks. "Because we WORK for a living, buddy."

They grieved it. ~:D

Like Jan says, European UNION.

Remember, phantom, Unions are parasites on the workers. Unions don't do any work; the income for the Union 'Employees' comes via something called 'Union Dues'.

So, you, the Worker, are working and earning for your labour. BUT - you are supporting not simply yourself! Your income is reduced, because part of your income is being given to these parasites, the union people. That's what THEY live on. They don't do any work; they take your money as their income. Parasites.

This, of course, increases the costs of goods, because the cost of goods increases as your wages are supporting not simply you. But the unioniste!

The Union's interest is in increasing your income. Nor for your sake. For their sake, so that your union 'dues' are higher. Their income therefore increases. And, their interest is in decreasing the amount of work you can do. So, the company has to hire more people to get the work done. Result? More union dues. Higher income for the union!

Unions are parasites; they ought to be absolished.

As for the EU and its bureaucracy, it will collapse in itself when its rules freeze any capacity to do any work. Imagine, working for about an hour (31 mile drive) and then, getting two days off!

Every once in a while, the European peasants get sick of their leadership and have them killed.

They're over-due.

Time for a terror in France. Time for the next Cromwell in England.

The elites are telling you all to "eat cake" and instead of storming the bastille, you're eating it and it's not cake - it's a turd.

Europe needs a purge - soon.

The Brits have painted themselves into this Nanny State nightmare, they don't have clean hands. I'm beginning to think that Churchill and Thatcher were aberrations occuring only when the British sheeple were dragged into reality by sheer desperation. That was before socialism became entrenched. I'm cutting them no slack.

Scan any of their tabloid rags, we are talking about people that still swoon over any stupid Diana trivia while everything around them is burning to the ground.

Thank God King George III pissed off my ancestors(half of them anyways). Britian is like the Alzheimer's addled grandma that finally has to go to a nursing home. In another decade they won't be able to identify us over here.

Absolutely, ET. All they really do is drive up the cost of a job and make life difficult for everyone involved. Great place for fat guys to get a nice sinecure though, lemme tell you. City of Hamilton, the fat man's friend. You can lean on your shovel half the day and ride around in the truck the other half.

You really have to experience working in a union environment for a couple of months before you can fully understand why the Chicoms and India and Indonesia are eating our lunch these days.

In the early days of unions they were needed, but those days are looooong gone. Labor is no longer cheap and disposable in this country, jobs are not scarce, and you don't starve to death if you get fired. "Safety issues" are no longer about safety and haven't been for the last 30 years. Maybe 40.

Europe of course is much further down the union driven "worker's paradise" track than we are. In Canada you can be a painter or a cabinet maker if you want to, in Europe you have to have a license as if you were a doctor.

That's the mentality running the EU. They are trying to get to the place where you get paid no matter how little work you do. They don't want a social safety net, they want a social safety hammock next to a swim-up bar.

Oddly, people like Sarkozy are starting to win elections on promises to start unwinding this union crap. Again, you have to work in a union environment for a little while to understand how that can be. People hate working in union shops, you can't get anything done. Drives you nuts after a while.

Union thug head explosion in 3, 2, 1...

Actually, phantom, Quebec has strong similarities to the EU unions.

You may not want to be in a union in Quebec, but even though you decline membership, your dues are automatically deducted. No choice.

No, you can't be a 'painter' or 'carpenter' on your own in Quebec. You have to be a member of the Union. If you, the local guy, want to set up your own painting business - you're out of luck. The union mafia might let you get away with painting the first floor, but go higher, and they'll be after you. It's not allowed; only Union Workers are allowed to paint higher.

And, to be a member of one of these 'Guilds', you have to pay extra dues to them.

Unions are, as you point out, no longer necessary. In the beginning, 100 years ago, they had a role. That role of safety, minimum wages, cost of living etc, has all been taken over by the govt and the employer.

What has happened is that Unions have transformed into a secondary, parasitic 'industry', feeding off the wages of the workers. But doing nothing for those workers. This parasitic agency actually drives the cost of living up, reduces the actual income of the worker and imposes enormous costly restraints on production.

So, when unions like Buzz Hargrove protest that the jobs are going to China and India, rather than 'his people' - he's trying to blame the Corporations for this. No, it's his and his union's fault. Only their fault. By adding a parasitic economy on to the industry, Hargrove and his fellow unionistes have made it too costly to work - and live - in Ontario.

What's Hargrove's solution? The worker as usual. He wants the government, ie, the taxpayer, to give 'his people' more money so that they can pay 'his workers' their salaries, benefits, pensions, etc...And their union dues.

How about dropping the union dues, Buzz? That would save a lot of money.

Think about it. The Ontario public service, which consists not only of the government, but also everything it funds, health care workers, hospitals, education, security, transportation, etc etc. All unionized. All with high costs. Including ticket takers at the Bus and Subway stops in Toronto earning over 100,000 a year.

We've done this to ourselves, by permitting unions to gain control over our work. Permitting Unions to actually take part of our income, our wages! For what? Only to increase our wages...which means that our union dues increase..and the cost of living increases?

And then, the consumer can't afford to pay the high costs of the goods we produce! After all, those high costs support TWO levels: the actual workers..and the parasites on those workers.

Then what? Then people like Buzz Hargrove insist that the workers pay for the parasites! Fund the business with taxpayer dollars.

No, it isn't the Evil Chinese, or Evil Indians who are taking our jobs. It's the Unions.

ET: "You may not want to be in a union in Quebec, but even though you decline membership, your dues are automatically deducted. No choice."

It's called the Rand Formula, named after a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. It's not just Quebec. If you work in a unionised shop, you either join and pay (dues = zakat) or just pay your union jizya. And remember, according to the infallible Charterolatrists in Ottawa, that doesn't infringe the Charter's guarantee of freedom of association.

The UK and Europe is a barometer of things to come in North America!

Just a minute. Why does this EU nonsense mean that Churchill should have thrown the English to the wolves? There was a referendum in 1975 on whether Britain should stay part of the Common Market, which was then a far cry from the statist disaster the EU has become. Since then no viable political party has offered Britain the chance to leave the EU. Nobody who is younger than 51 has ever had the chance to vote on this issue. Short of another Gunpowder Plot, what do you suggest the people do?

I picked up freight at a place once. The forklift operator wouldn't because it was his time to pray.

While I won't disclose the words that brought his boss running...he clearly understood that he was keeping me from my family and that he clearly needed to pray.

The boss loaded the truck and the next time I went back, the gentleman had been assigned other duties.

He still had a job. I have government decreed rules on my work/driving hours.

Family first.

ET, that's why I live in Ontario and why I'm strongly considering real estate in Arizona.

Quebec can separate and put itself out of business for all of me, I'll shed no tears.

Still, Ontario has Workmen's Compensation. This acts as a de-facto kind of union dues, because they take money off you "in case you get hurt". The rate for painters is on the order of 10% if I remember right. Meaning if you pay minimum wage @ $10/hr, you have to pony up another buck for Wormen's Comp. plus OHIP plus insurance plus a couple other things. So your $10/hr employee actually costs you about $15/hr.

Which is why MOST of the construction in Ontario is done by "self employed contractors", and why there are no painting "companies" with "employees". Also why the vast majority of small construction/renovation is sub-rosa cash.

Also why Mike Holmes has a TV show, but that's another story. Helpful hint, don't buy a house built in the last ten years, kids.

Look for Brit bus companies to go the same way.

phantom - right. That's also why so much of the Quebec economy is black-market. They've driven themselves into a dead-end cave with their socialist lifestyle and unions.

Their socialist lifestyle is far beyond the capacity of the Quebec taxpayer (provincial and federal taxes together) which is why Quebec insists on so much money from Ottawa.

And their socialist lifestyle of work means that it's simply too expensive to produce anything in Quebec, which is why big industries have to subsidized by the ROC taxpayer (Bombardier, bureaucracy) because the unions have driven the cost of employment so high.

And why the small businesses that are there, are black market. They can't afford to be found out by the union mafia and/or driven out of business.

Quebec is starting to wake up to what it's done. The real mess now, is Ontario, which is trapped within big unions - the public service unions, the auto unions and so on. Business can't afford to operate in Ontario and is leaving.

As I said, unions blame the Greedy Corporations. Heh. The Greedy Unions, those parasites on the worker, are the real cause of the mess.

Colin Suttie said: "Nobody who is younger than 51 has ever had the chance to vote on this issue. Short of another Gunpowder Plot, what do you suggest the people do?"

Shift their asses off the couch and start a new party? Just a suggestion, eh?

the purpose as the story said is to drive the little operators out of business, it isn't stupid it is planned to collectivize all under the tender mercies of the state, that is the only agenda.

31 miles of driving is right at the limit of human endurance. We shouldn't fight nature. We need to stop pushing the limits. I would feel a lot better if the limit was 28 miles.

Let's hope that common sense prevails, 28 miles is established in sharia law, and Al Gore adds this to Inconvenient Truth 2.0.

I went to the 'wolves' link, Kate; unfortunately there's a sidebar with other links...Augggggh!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=554870&in_page_id=1879
;)

As a man, I'm not so sure Islam offers me a worse future than what I see for Britain. Under Islam, I must submit to islam, but at least I get to keep my cojones. Under the encroaching feminist/socialist British republic I must submit to the great collective AND offer up my cojones on a platter. Honestly now, I'm thinking that seven wives looks a mite better than castration in divorce court and lamp posts wrapped in foam.

Sober2nd:

You are so right! I visited Scotland a few years back, and rented a car. Driving on the left was bad enough, but on a road that was less wide than the quiet street I live on in Richmond Hill, to see an enormous lorry barreling at you at 90k - white knuckle city!

Love the roundabouts though - if only North American drivers were bright enough to figure them out. They save tons of energy and emissions over inefficient stop lights.

You might want to check your source on this posting.
Better explanation here: http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/03/shoddy-goods.html#links

On distance: it is a pretty subjective value and often will correspond to the size of the country.
Driving 300-odd km a day to achieve something in Canada is not exactly a badge of courage but a neccessity. It's like repeating that McCain is a war hero, yet forgetting that he was a crappy pilot who lost 4 planes under no pressure before he was shot down over Vietnam.

And him cooling his ass for quite some years in the Vietcong camp was not a heroic decision but 'unforeseen career development'.

Nice blog.

This is exactly the drivel I have to put up with as a city worker as well.

We can't plant tree's in our parks unless forestry does it. We can't (but do or nothing would be done ) work more than 1/2 hour if -15 below or 80 above The crazy Mayor wants idling fines for more than 30 seconds running ANY vehicle. 250 dollars for jay walking, 500 for stop signs that you can bet the 4000 bums , wino's & crazies plus the real true, native Canadians, will never ,ever pay a dime.

Another cash grab in the name of safety, that defeats the whole development. They may spend the year traveling on tax payers money to warm climes all winter on the tax payers dime. But for the rest of us 40 below is not uncommon here. Have any of these idiots ever looked at a map & how far North we are? Will they turn offices down to 12 or 14 degrees in the snug offices? Yeah & Tinker Bell did disco.

This is what bureaucracy does. Find ways to part you from your money for themselves while mouthing meaningless excuses for insane ideas. Its about control of every aspect of peoples lives. Unmanning the populace into children with bylaws not enforceable if the whole Nation where a police state. Or labor laws so out of touch with reality it hinders growth, lowers expectations & further brutalizes an already ghastly caste system.

All I can conclude is someone is making money off this somewhere. this is what happens when you stop being a representative Democracy to a far-flung government run by unknown, unelected autocrats.

Just my opinion

I'm not so sure Islam offers me a worse future than what I see for Britain. Under Islam, I must submit to islam, but at least I get to keep my cojones.

INP - you've nailed down with ironic humor the hidden truth that at least Islam has protected masculinity, all be it in a perverse macho form, better than the effette lefty loser Euroweenies have. You got that right that feminists and their neutered little male furry compadres do want your cojones as trophys even if it means that Islam wins while they exploit that agenda. Sick, isn't it.

How sad is it at this point in time in our history that we have the macho Muslim male versus the pathetic little feminized lefty male moonbat in the west ready to surrender to him.

St. Joe - McCain was offered an early out of his misery by virtue of his dad's military status, he refused, got a better definition of good character? "Cooling his ass" in a North Vietnam prison camp for 5 years, only a moronic jerk would use that description.

Sober2ndThought - Limit of 90KPH - just not true but perhaps in the UK?

In continental Europe - On the national roads 'Yes' but not on the toll roads (autoroute & autostrada) or the AutoBahn (no speed limit) where they sip right along at the speed limit of 130 kph.

Well, EU regulations for long-distance coach and truck drivers are actually quite strict but practical (and based on combatting fatigue). This does not stop many drivers from trying to dodge them though (there's a surprise!).

The 31 miles thing has me puzzled; it must surely be 31 hours. I'll have to research it.

There is one place I know where a British bus driver really would need a break after 31 miles of driving: London.

The average speed in inner London is 10-12 mph. Couple that with manoeuvring a double-decker full of "hoodies" and other low-life around Brixham or Fulham for three hours and you've have had 31 miles of driving in purgatory.

The old British TV series On the Buses is on Vision - this week was the first episode.
After reading this article, you'll really enjoy the crazy comedy.

Ahhh, Small Dead Minds are at it again. Perhaps a little research into the story (and the legislation) would keep you from making such fools of yourselves:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7107057.stm

ulianov, your link describes exactly what we are talking about: idiot union rules designed to put small operators out of business for no good reason.

You think a bus line should be forced to cough up two grand on the spur of the moment for a clock? You think bus drivers can't decide how much they want to work, and switch jobs if they don't like the company they are in? You think a guy who drives a bus can't decide to do a different job altogether if he wants weekends off?

You vote NDP, don't you?

I guess the 3300 miles I drove this week would be a no no? Good thing it hasnt gotten that stupid here, yet?

No Phantom, those rules are designed to make sure that drivers aren't working longers hours than they should. Too expensive? What a lame excuse! When a bus $200k plus the owner can't afford $2k for a tach clock?

You're just another right winger with his head up his ass.