Placing lives at risk

Once again the EU tries to impose their continental employment model on us by further breaching freedom of contract - a 48 hour week for junior doctors.

This is a vital stage in their careers, and at this rate training will have to be prolonged, hence increases in debt and so on. It also means that potentially there will be less doctors to treat patients, as my title says placing lives at risk and further increasing waiting lists. You then get the BNP etc complaining at the increase in foreign doctors in our hospitals.

But nothing more than this is the breach of the freedom of contract; the dynamic labour market based on supply and demand - doctors generally accept they'll have to work antisocial hours, and by devoting their lives to this career they accept that. So why stop them earning all the money they are willing to earn? This sort of regulation distorts the labour market.

I also thought we'd saved our opt-out from the 48-hour week. It's about time we left the EU and left continental Europe to rue becoming uncompetitive while Britain controls its own affairs and does well based on old Anglo-Saxon free market principles. It's ever so simple.