Interesting Links for 31-01-2014

[andrewducker]

• Smoking ban in cars with children unenforceable
  (tags: politics law smoking cars )
• Currying vs partial function application (in C#)
  (tags: programming c# )
• Nine Things to Expect from HTTP/2
  (tags: internet web http )
• Dredging rivers won't stop floods. It will make them worse
  (tags: rivers environment )
• Grumpy Disney is the new best thing ever
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Comments

[danieldwilliam]

I think on a practical level banning smoking in cars when there are children present is about as enforceable as banning using mobile phones when driving. Which is to say, very enforceable if you wish to pick up all the paperwork.

I think Clegg has missed one of the roles of law. Laws help create social norms. They don’t just prevent unwanted behaviour by making people scared about being caught and punished. They create a rallying point around which people moderate their own and others’ behaviours.

[bart_calendar]

You honestly believe that?

My experience is that people ignore laws if they don't like the law and think they can get away with it.

If they created "social norms" people wouldn't have been smoking so much pot over the years.

[danieldwilliam]

I didn’t say they were perfect at it.

It’s more a case of motion towards. Or the upstream part of American Legal Realism in action.

And plenty of people buy the line that pot = illegal = bad.

[alitheapipkin]

I'd generally agree with you but the number of people I see still using their mobiles in cars around here, and, more to point, the number of times I see police ignoring it, makes me wonder if trying to ban things people do in 'the privacy' of their own cars, is as pointless as trying to ban stuff people do in the privacy of their own homes...

[momentsmusicaux]

Busybodies, that's how we enforce it.
Good old-fashioned middle-aged grumpy fuckers, wagging their fingers at cars going past.

[brixtonbrood]

Busybodies (and teachers and nurses) will happily report parents who are driving children without appropriate childseats.

I think this is one of those laws which people will complain is unenforceable but will gradually drive social norms. There's a tendency in these discourses to divide people into "parents like me, who are already doing their very best in all possible respects and don't need any government interference" and "parents like her over there, who don't give a toss for their children and will just ignore all the rules". In fact of course almost all parents fall into a grey area of at least wanting to see themselves as making an effort, but frequently cutting corners.