According to the Mirror, a man was fined 150 pounds for insisting on identifying himself as "English" on the British census form. Glenn Reynolds/Insta-Pundit (like the man in question) says that this demonstrates that "it's a crime to be English in England nowadays." OK. But even funnier is just the fact that you can be fined that much money (more than $200) for failing to fill out a census form; and the man's explanation for his bold stab at civil disobedience: "he refused to tick the box for 'British,' claiming that Britain no longer existed." (I hope that's not true, since I'm supposed to be going there next week.) Also puzzling is why the writer of the article feels it is important to describe this guy as "divorced Mr. Molyneaux, from Poynten, Cheshire"-- fortunately, there's no fine for being divorced, nor for being from Cheshire (though maybe there should be...)
I'm not sure, but I suppose this has to do with Britain's uneasy position straddling the fence between its own sovereignty and membership in the European "nation." I remember a case when I was there last year, where a man was fined for selling bananas by the pound, rather than by the kilogram; European trading regulations demand that everything be measured in the metric system, even bananas. I imagine the British census, like everything else, is laden with Euro-requirements. The whole point of the European superstate project, it seems to me, is to make being English (and "being British" as well) less relevant to "existence." It's not exactly against the law, but it does seem to be frowned upon.
Posted by Dr. Frank at December 6, 2001 10:36 PM | TrackBack