Chris Maclean: our incompetent legislators

I don't consider myself to be particularly stupid but I do struggle with some basic issues. Maybe I am a little naïve. I tend to believe it when people tell me something that I want to believe is true.

Eleven years ago a lone gunman killed 16 children and their teacher at a school in Dunblane. It was a short period of time before the new government under Tony Blair banned the ownership of any handgun in the UK. This would prevent tragedies like the one in Dunblane.

But this morning in my paper an 11-year-old boy shot and killed, a 12-year-old with a gun. Gun crime is now more rampant in this country than it has ever been.

So much for banning handguns.

The Licensing Act 2003 expressly sets out to promote four objectives. Two of the most relevant are the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance.

Yet four years later we are being besieged with headlines of drink-fuelled violence, loutishness and crime. And chief constables, among many, identify the Licensing Act as a significant contributory factor.

So what is going wrong? How is it that the government sets out with the express intention of controlling a problem with legislation to find out it has not got the intended effect and, even worse, appears to exacerbate the problem.

I have seen too many conspiracy theorists writing of how there are hidden agendas and secret plots. But realistically the government of the day finds itself needing to be seen to respond to issues, makes a response they think will fit but then doesn't think through the consequences.

If you remove the restrictions that prevent businesses trading on a Sunday you simply make Sunday a day like any other. And now a week is an amorphous mass.

If you remove the licensing hours to liberalise drinking you create an enhanced opportunity for drunkenness.

If you prohibit handguns you drive them underground and into the hands of criminals.

I want to turn the clock back but I know I cannot.

I yearn for the old Sunday 12 'til two session. A game of cards. A few pints, then home for Sunday lunch.

Simple pleasures destroyed by the passing of incompetent legislation.

We cannot turn the clock back but, for pity's sake, can we stop doing even more damage to our institutions? Can we have 10 years without government trying to change what we are doing?