In light of my recent blog about the ridiculousness of possible driving liscence restrictions, it occurred to me that perhaps age restrictions are becoming the new political correctness - Over dramatic, ineffective and a partial waste of time.
Are we going too far with age restrictions?
Now, don't get me wrong, the basic limits are useful and somewhat sensible. The 'no alcohol under 18' is a great one, same goes for tobacco, young children should'nt be able to freely buy alcohol or smokes, but, despite the age restiction, all you ever see these days are groups of kids in parks or on street corners surrounded by a wall of cheap cider bottles and cans while smoking so much that the haze of nicotine seems to cause swirly-pattern baldness and chronic idiocy. So where is it coming from if every shop is suppossed to I.D people? And if some shops aren't I.D-ing people then whats the point in the first place?
Restricitons that seem a bit too, what's the word... oh yes... STUPID, for me are the ones at places like argos or my local co-op. Now, upon visiting my local shop to buy a box of house-hold matches, I was informed that I wasn't 21 (Shock, horror, suprise, it's your birthday!) and I was actually refused service over a box of cooks matches! I merely wanted to light afew candles, not cause a mass arson or to go round setting fire to people's faces. Then again, who's to say that you're less likely to be an arsonist after the age of twenty one?
A similar story occurred at argos when I went to buy an electric bread knife for the cafe that I work in. I had to be twenty one to buy that too. It is an ELECTRIC appliance! Unless i have an extention lead over twenty meters long I can't even give my neighbour an unwelcome hair cut, never mind cause significant 'social damage.'
So, I did some research into current age restrictions. Starting from the bottom ;-
You must be SIXTEEN to legally - buy petrol, spray paint, lottery tickets and liqueur chocolates. (and of course to have sexual intercourse, but one episode of jeremy kyle will prove that that principle was dead and buried long ago).
You must be EIGHTEEN to legally - buy tobacco, get a tattoo, buy 'adult magazines' and to buy butane gas and crossbows (what the hell?!). Also fireworks can be sold to those to are apparently over 18.
Surely more damage can be done with a butane gas cylinder/lighter, fireworks and a crossbow for god's sake, than a few matches or an electric bread knife!
And you must be TWENTY-ONE to buy knife blocks or bread knives etc, etc.
So remember to take your mum, or maybe your nan just to be safe, if you move out before your twenty-one and need some kitchen equipment.
So the only conclusion that I can come to is that, instead of calmly leaving the shop when refused service for matches and merely going home, is that I should have nipped down to the petrol station and the local armoury, buying some petrol, a butane cylinder and a cross-bow and arrows (all of which are available to 18 year olds), walking calmly back into the shop and placing the cylinder infront of that charming woman's till, dipping an arrow into some petrol, lighting the arrow by scratching it against HER BEARD, then leaving the shop again and firing the arrow into the cylinder, thereby destroying the shop and its crazy restictions. Especially when the paper shop two doors down sold me matches without so much as an I.D!
*Cough*... *Cough*... do excuse me, I lost myself there in the bitter memories... anyway... who is to say that responsibility comes with age? Surely if you walked into the local knitting circle and told the cute little old ladies that their pensions are being stopped, there would be more blood and broken knitting needles on the pavement than there would be if a twenty year old woman or man was to buy a box of matches or an electric bread knife to cut a loaf of granary bread or light afew candles for a cosy night in?
Until next time =)
