QOTD, 03/05/15

I just started reading Inventing Freedom, by Daniel Hannan, Member of European Parliament for South East England.

...to the Eurocrat, "unregulated” is more or less synonymous with "illegal."

For "Eurocrat", one can easily substitute, say, "Bureaucrat." Or "Statist." Or "Leftist."

The full quote runs thus:

British Euro-skepticism owes a great deal to a resentment of what is seen as unnecessary meddling, but, to the Eurocrat, "unregulated” is more or less synonymous with "illegal." I see the difference almost every day. Why, I often find myself asking in the European Parliament, do we need a new EU directive on, let's say, herbal medicine? Because, comes the answer there isn't one . In England, herbalists have been self regulating since the reign of Henry VIII. In most of Europe, such a state of affairs could never have come about.

The same "reasoning" leads to seeing "loopholes" anywhere the statist sees free men and women doing as they please.