The House of Lords decided to end this practice. But the government intervened Monday, February 15 to save the tradition ----- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...guard-our-great-traditions-says-minister.html
General / Off-Topic In United Kingdom, the laws are printed on a parchment in skin of lamb or kid.
- Thread starter Patrick_68000
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Great!
http://www.theguardian.com/politics...-printing-laws-on-vellum-to-save-80000-a-year
Disabled people are getting made homeless, essential council workers are being cut, healthcare workers are being driven to the edge, but who cares? We can spend 80k per year printing laws on calfskin!
http://www.theguardian.com/politics...-printing-laws-on-vellum-to-save-80000-a-year
Disabled people are getting made homeless, essential council workers are being cut, healthcare workers are being driven to the edge, but who cares? We can spend 80k per year printing laws on calfskin!
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Given that the £80,000 goes towards supporting a niche craft, I think it's money well spent. After all, the government spends millions on supporting the ENO...
It isn't a large amount comparatively.
More importantly, it's a system that is known and trusted to be reliable. The digital alternative is far from that. For an institution that considers its very existence to be on a par with ascension, recording its words for all time must be a particular bother.
More importantly, it's a system that is known and trusted to be reliable. The digital alternative is far from that. For an institution that considers its very existence to be on a par with ascension, recording its words for all time must be a particular bother.
Come on ladies and gentlemen, laminated paper would work just as well.
It's the principle. At a time when our glorious leaders are subjecting us all to austerity and cuts, particularly to the poorest and most vulnerable in society, they are keeping their own little opulent and expensive traditions while repeating the mantras of "We can't go on like this" and "we're all in this together".
If you worked in a company of 500 people, and the boss announced he was cutting everyones wages but it was necessary you might not be happy but at least you might understand it. Then you find out the boss is throwing a champaign party on a yacht for the managers...
It's the principle. At a time when our glorious leaders are subjecting us all to austerity and cuts, particularly to the poorest and most vulnerable in society, they are keeping their own little opulent and expensive traditions while repeating the mantras of "We can't go on like this" and "we're all in this together".
If you worked in a company of 500 people, and the boss announced he was cutting everyones wages but it was necessary you might not be happy but at least you might understand it. Then you find out the boss is throwing a champaign party on a yacht for the managers...
To be fair, we don't know how well laminated paper will last or modern inks. we can estimate and assume that stuff written on modern archival paper with high quality ink will last, but we don't know for certain.
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Vellum and the particular ink they use, on the other hand, has been proven to remain readable for many hundreds of years. I believe there are still a couple of the original magna carta copies still readable and they are some 800 years or so.
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Don't forget these are important historical records, digital stuff is extremely bad for archiving. I came across my university dissertation the other day, no way I could read it as it was on floppy disc and more importantly in an obsolete file type. I don't have a working floppy drive anymore, I struggled them other day with a driver because it was on CD and I didn't have a DVD drive on any of my computers, I had to search online for it. As for my early forays into coding stored on Spectrum +3 discs.........
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At least on vellum the records will be readable as long as we still have eyes.
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Repped. Abolutely. Virtue signalling to attract greenies and animal huggers.
couldnt have put it better myself!
They're really not all that important. Laminated paper would work just as well.
For 80k? There are a load of community centers that could use that money. Schools, hospitals, cleaners, park workers, roadworks, etc. This is more about them keeping their traditions going which they regard as highly important.
What's the first maxim of the categorical imperative? Universality. If we do something, anything, that is to be considered moral or ethical this something must be something that it is ok to do all the time, because once we start making excuses anyone can then make justifications for the crap they do. This can lead to a breakdown in morality, governments, and societal or social structures.
Example: We've had many many global warming summits by this point, but rarely is an agreement reached, and when one is it is generally ignored. Why? Because as long one nation abuses the carbon emissions quotas it will get an advantage, and we can't have that.
This doesn't just apply to nations but to individuals too. We should all stop making unnecessary journeys, right? We should all use less electricity, recycle more, and stop eating meat, right? But my little one trip won't make that much of a difference. What's one cardboard box into the landfill, it's only one box. This little steak is only one steak, it can't make that much difference can it?
If a government is run in an ethical way it's actions must have universality. Making exceptions to their mantra of austerity on the basis of "in 500 years time people will need to know about Camerons internet filter" is ethically indefensible.
While initial projections for renovations of Westminster will probably top £3 - 5 bn with a similar figure for Buck House. MPs pay themselves £100k.
The problem is we have become so brainwashed by modern claims about government finance that we accept that the country can't afford to education kids, put enough police on the street, provide adequate hospitals, while accepting this sort of nonsense.
It's all a lie. National finances are completely different from personal and we are being systematically ripped off.
But it's our own fault. We swallow the lies of the likes of the Labour Party which claims it is so working class or the Torys who are always chanting some horror slogan or other.
It kind of is important, our laws are a combination of statute and precedents, and remain in force until "overwritten", for example I think the last of the laws contained in the magna carta were only superseded a few years ago and in landlord tenant law there are some situations still governed by laws dating back to the 1700's.
Laminated paper may well be pretty sturdy, but vellum and ink has been proven to last. Maybe in a few hundred years time laminated paper will have the same track record.
Anyway as others have said £80k in the scheme of things is peanuts. We need to store the info somehow and whatever method we use it will probably cost a similar amount. Just the wages for a single clerk would take up a good chunk of that.
When was the last time someone needed to look up a law from 500 years ago on calfskin? When was this stuff actually consulted for something necessary and not just for someone on the BBC to go "oh wow!" at?
Look up universality in the categorical imperative and you'll see why this is a non-argument. Apply the same standard to everyone else effected by austerity. 80k is vastly more than the wages of the average municipal worker, huge numbers of whom have been made redundant. But if you gave them all their jobs back you'd have a black hole in the budget that could only be filled by not cutting taxes for the wealthiest people.
If you don't apply the same standard then you're creating a two tier society - one set of rules and laws applied to one group and a different set of rules and laws applied to another. This is especially bad when you stop to think about the fact that those making these rules are the ones granting themselves special privileges. Austerity causes pain and misery among those who feel it. A government which finds it necessary to inflict that on the citizens it is supposed to represent should also feel that pain and misery and suffer with the people. If it doesn't we've very much got a Marie Antoinette situation.
While more persistent forms of storage have recently been developed, I think 360TB lasting for 14 billion years is a bit overkill :s
They already use the skin off ours.