I don't know how many commenters are Americans and how many are Brits, but this is typical for the U.K. I read the Telegraph, Times, Guardian and Mirror every day on the net, though I'm in Florida. This kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME over there. I don't think Americans are quite that bad. There's something about the nanny state in the UK that has really penetrated all the way to the bottom of of the brains(?) of UK public servants. Tea Partiers would go batshit if anyone tried to do the same stuff over here.