Official News page 7

REAL LIFE NEWS: SOMETIMES THE FASCISTS ARE RIGHT

by Hazed

I'm a bit of a civil libertarian and I am very distressed at the way society seems to be chucking away hard-fought rights in favor of the triple scourges of terrorism, health and safety, and anti-social behavior. But still, sometimes, it's hard to argue with a move to infringe human rights.

A case in point is an edict from Brussels, the heart of the European Union, which says that bagpipers must adhere to strict volume limits or risk breaking health and safety laws. Typically, a pipe band played at full volume peaks at around 122 decibels outdoors, which is noisier than the sound of a nightclub or a chainsaw. The new order tells them to tone it down to 85 decibels, or the members of the band have to wear earplugs.

Well, personally I loathe and detest the sound of bagpipes. Once lone piper is bad enough, sounding like a cat being strangled, but a full band sends me running for the hills. So anything which serves to shut them up is welcome as far as I am concerned. However, members of pipe bands are none too happy about the move, because they say it's impossible to play the bagpipes quietly, but if they put in earplugs they can't practice properly.

You can read more information about this strike at the heart of Scottish pride, as well as some statistics about other loud things, in this article in the Times newspaper.

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