kickingtyres

Google streetview has come to the UK, covering most of the major towns and cities.

Here’s a few to get you started:

Kings College Cambridge

Covent Garden, London

George Square, Glasgow

Even my old street is there

Enjoy.

Low-alcohol bubbly is not wine, court rules – Times Online.

I think, within this story, the key quote is from Neil Parish, Chairman of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee.

“Once again the UK has adopted the strictest interpretation of officious European rules which most other EU countries would turn a blind eye to,”

We hear time and again from the Euro-sceptics, how “Europe” is damaging Britain’s life, values and laws, when it’s often Britain’s over-officious attitude to doing things to the letter, and not applying common sense, that does the damage.

In a country that suffers from the regular and accepted social abuse of alcohol, anything that encourages sensible drinking cannot be seen as a bad thing.  However, here, the sense of sensible drinking obviously takes second place to ensuring the right boxes are ticked, and everything is done “by the book”.

I find it slightly ironic that, while the rest of Europe has these same regulations, they can find it within their own legal and regulatory systems, to bend the laws now and again, in the name of preserving their own identity, nationality and common sense.

It’s not the EU that’s eroding “Britishness”, but our desire to follow laws to the letter