Thursday 2 June 2005

Playing with fire

I see that excessive bureaucracy is causing problems again:
Twenty part-time firefighters have already resigned and union leaders warn that up to 200 members may eventually reject the contracts in the Highlands, which has the vast majority of volunteer firefighters.
The part-timers are upset about new rules that mean they will now spend their time giving advice instead of actually fighting fires. Note that this change is deemed necessary because the firefighters "were not adequately trained or equipped". This is a typical response of a centralised state bureaucracy that thinks that "one size fits all", when it is obvious that underpopulated areas need different levels of service from more urbanised parts of the country.

This sums up the whole sad state of affairs:

At the moment some can get sent to road traffic accidents, but if the car goes on fire they have to be withdrawn.
Should the Chief Inspector of Fire Services be unfortunate enough to be trapped in a burning car would even he not welcome the fortuitous appearance of some part-time local firemen, even if they weren't "adequately trained"?

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