Really Annoying

Samizdata has a post on our friend the bat - nasty little Marxist stalking horse that he is. Of course, they are right that it is a grim offence against property rights and such like. Still, I'm a Conservative not a Libertarian, so what really annoys me about the flying rats is the immense amount of humbug they generate amongst the ecotools. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen some bearded freak on the idiot box explaining the bats are actually mammals. Say what ? I mean, what else ? Are we supposed to believe that there are people out there who think they're fish ? Or really large flies ? No, of course not. It just the L3 being their usual smug, patronising selves , trying to pass off all their opponents as misinformed idiots who'd come round to the L3 position if only their tiny minds were advanced enough to appreciate that the big, furry thing is not a type of frog.

Screw that. They're mammals alright. They're rodents. Like rats, except they fly and they live in people's houses. And come out at night when people are asleep and enter their rooms without an invitation and fly round sqeaking and squarking. No wonder the Left loves them so - in terms of sheer annoyance the bat is Mother Nature's own Guardian reader (although life would be much improved if we could persuade Guardian readers to do something as useful as performing pollination or eating insects). I'm assuming it wasn't the objective of this legisaltion to ensure that anyone finding a flying rat on the premises kills it ASAP ? How can a political grouping have so many lawyers and so little grasp of the Law of Unintended Consequences ?