In the UK, a Crime Worse Than Groomer Gangs…

Did you hear about the crime of the century from this week?

A few days ago Vice President Vance joined British Foreign Secretary David Lammy for a day at Chevening House — the stately 17th-century home that doubles as a retreat for Britain’s top diplomat.

It turns out that neither Vance nor Lammy held the required “rod license” that would allow them to legally fish on the private pond on the private estate.

It doesn’t matter that neither of them actually caught any fish— although apparently JD Vance’s kids were able to snag a couple invasive carp, which you’d think would be a good thing.

After being informed of his vile transgression, the Foreign Secretary dutifully bought a license afterward and “referred himself” to the Environment Agency for the appropriate punishment. He faces a fine up to £2,500, roughly $3,400.

The US media acted as if Vance had caused an international incident… like he poached the King’s jewels at a state dinner.

To them, Vance’s unlicensed fishing is somehow proof of depraved lawlessness… and much ink has been spilled this week condemning the Vice President for his “irresponsible” behavior.

We have a different view. Frankly the British government should be embarrassed. And not because of what happened to Vance… but because regular Brits are subjected to this same useless bureaucratic nonsense on a daily basis.

It’s bad enough that the British government has betrayed its citizens with a destructive open-border policy. They import boatloads of migrants each year and pour billions in taxpayer funds into housing, food, health care, and legal aid for them.

Hotels across the country have been commandeered to house asylum seekers, while local councils slash services for the citizens who pay for it all.

And when grooming gangs run rampant— men of overwhelmingly Pakistani Muslim descent, preying on thousands of underage girls — the authorities cover it up. Police labeled victims as “consensual” participants, while doctors dismissed pregnant 12-year-olds as making “lifestyle choices”.

Politicians refused even to investigate, fearing accusations of racism that might unravel their open-border narrative.

This went all the way to the top, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer leading his party to reject a national inquiry, dismissing it as “the bandwagon of the far right”.

But on top of everything else, the British government goes out of its way to strangle the economy and make people and businesses worse off.

A recent government review found Britain’s red tape helped drive the cost of building a nuclear power plant from £18 billion to £48 billion.

Across the board, 130 regulatory agencies impose about £70 billion a year in compliance costs — roughly 3–4% of GDP.

Productivity growth has averaged a pathetic 0.5% since 2008, costing £80 billion annually in lost output. And as of this spring, GDP fell 0.3% in April and 0.1% in May, showing an economy slowly suffocating under its own bureaucracy.

The reality is you can’t even use the loo in Britain anymore without first obtaining a license.

You even need a license to watch TV — £174.50 a year for color, and £58.50 if you’re still rocking black-and-white — money the BBC uses to pump out propaganda to support the government’s cover-ups.

The government has plastered Big Brother billboards shaming those who don’t pay; they sent Christmas cards threatening £1,000 fines, and promised door-knocks on December 25th for people who didn’t pay their BBC TV license.

And it’s not just TV or fishing; you need a license for a wireless mic — not to beam signals into space, but for karaoke or a YouTuber’s lapel mic. And about a million other things.

Normal, basic functions of everyday life are absurdly over-regulated in the UK. And I sincerely hope that Vance took notice… because America isn’t too far behind.

In the Land of the Free, you need a license to braid hair, read palms, open a thrift store, or become an interior designer.

And that may not sound like a big deal at first, until you realize this is why politicians are thrilled to see the US economy grow at a pathetic 3% per year.

In the early 20th century the US economy was growing leaps and bounds precisely because the free market was sacrosanct… and talented producers weren’t constrained by countless regulations.

If you wanted to open a restaurant, all you needed was food and customers.

My grandfather built houses with his own hands and rented them out. My grandmother knew how to do hair and nails, so she started a beauty salon in small town Oklahoma. No inspectors, no licenses… just hard working people providing good value for the money.

In today’s America it can take a year or more to navigate local, state, and federal bureaucracies, even for something simple like a restaurant. For something more complicated (like a copper mine), there are examples of critical projects that have been stalled for decades.

All of this results in a slower, less dynamic economy. And America is worse off for it.

I’ve written before that Liberation Day— the day the Trump administration declared economic war with tariffs— should have been the day they took a chainsaw to the entire 200,000 page code of federal regulations.

Maybe standing in a British field being scolded over an imaginary fishing crime will light a spark.

If JD Vance, i.e. the face that launched a thousand memes, comes home from this trip determined to cut 10,000 US regulations for every manipulated meme image of his face, then maybe America can finally get back on track.

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