I am over 60 years old. When I travel by air in the USA, I am always asked for an ID at airport bars. A lawyer must be causing this. The bartenders cannot be collectivly unable to figure out that iIam over 21 yeaqrs old.

Bill Riley, louisville, KY., USA

If you accept what Purves is saying then you must also accept that more will die or be horribly injured, especially children. Incontinent politicians will say "this must never happen again" and chain us in legislation.

Rejecting God we cannot accept suffering or death, and so become prisoners.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

Libby!!!

You should be Prime Minister!!!

Michael Sims, London, United Kingdom

Doesn't this article truly stress how we're not being turned into robots? Despite being told to translate signs to Welsh and cart around our luggage on trains, none of us really listen or care and it reduces the beuracrats half-baked plans to farce, bring it on I say it just puts a smile on my face.

jim, london,

We once had an Education system that taught us HOW to think; now we have an Indoctrination system to tell us WHAT to think - on pain of ASBO or worse (global warming?).
But then, we ceased to be a democracy 100yrs ago (1906 was it?) when we started paying MPs, thus making them Salaried Minions .

Abrahm Khadabrian, Broxburn,

Most human beings in the West are like hamsters on a wheel going round and round. They are longing to jump off and go their own way but are held back by fear.

Alan, Frankfurt, Germany

At my local ASDA all checkout ops invariably:

1 apologise for keeping me waiting even if there has been no queue
2 ask if I'd like help with my packing even if I have only one item

Could someone hazard a guess as to why staff should be instructed to intone such moronic cliches?

Gordon Alexander, Frome, UK

Vote for Libby. I think you should be in politics. Every time I read your articles, I smile, nod in agreement and feel so much better that you are there highlighting what probably the majority of us think or feel. Thank you

Mark Harris, Swansea, Wales

"I live in the oppressive Peoples Republic and I can guarantee that I can do whatever I bloody well like within reason. "
Pu Li, Guangxi, PRC

Does voting for your Government count as unreasonable, then?

F Cameron, Twickenahm, UK

England, Governed by Robots (NULABOUR) peopled by Robots terrified of causing offence.

Dave, Chorley,

I think most people in the position of having to enforce stupid rules are fully aware that they are ridiculous and likely not in favour of them. The trouble is not enforcing these rules will only end with them being hassled by higher-ups as to why they didn't. It's less bother to just follow orders.

Scott Hanson, London,

The best pronounciation of "Gwasanaethau" is gwas-an-eye-thigh. Hope this helps you.
Welsh is not dead, but it is not as alive as some would hope. It is heard across many parts of Wales, including the town of Barry. If I go out into the street, quite often people are talking in Welsh.

David, Barry, Wales

Leave, get out, find your freedom.

I live in the oppressive Peoples Republic and I can guarantee that I can do whatever I bloody well like within reason.

Britain is a laughing stock around the world now.

Pu Li, Guangxi, PRC

"Swyddfa" is a common Welsh word, taught in schools, and should have been recognised. Bad mark for Swansea Council.
But as for online translation, the message is written in colloquial Welsh - try everyday phrases from your local area and see if that works (I think you'll have similar issues).

Hannah , Oxford & Swansea, UK

This moronic routinised management of our lives has been long in brewing. The idea has been to reduce all interaction to the level of simple formulae ('Fries with that?') in order to accommodatre modern lethargy and 'brain absence'. It is now too much to expect people to 'engage brain before mouth'.

Mark, Reading, UK

Oh yes, oh yes, you are spot on. You do realise, of course, that all these robots have been put through compulsory 'training' courses devised by semi-literate 'trainers' who have no idea how to deal with someone saying refusing to take part. Good fun though.

Marion Brown, Peterborough ,

@Malcolm

This is actually the result of the rule of lawyers. If the message was not blared out every 3 seconds and someone did trip, that would be millions of pounds in compensation. A company can't do anything without lawyers these days and such idiotic rules are just hedging against the lawsuits.

Piotr, London, England

It's not incpmetence that causes these ridiculous things to occur: it's the intention of the government to turn us all into unthinking drones who follow their rules. Go into any government office and see how things work nowadays. Observe how children are 'taught' in schools.

John Bull, Wolverhampton, England

Who says the welsh don't have a sense of humour? It may not be one we share, but it would seem to be there.

Trudi, Worcester, England

Soon, beliveing in evolution will be a hate crime. Perhaps we all need personal sat-navs telling us to "walk on pavement" or "breathe". I see Oxford have banned Chritmas. As a white middle class male I would like to appologise for any offence caused. Orwellian & Kafkaesque furture is here!

Lucas Tatek, Herts., uk

Our local branch of HSBC has all its posters in Welsh as well as English. Polish or Urdu would make some sense, but Welsh? All of the very few Welsh people I know round here are teachers, and they all seem to cope just fine with English!

Gill, Southampton, UK

I think things have gone even further than Libby Purves's article suggests. Not only has commonsense been destroyed but people must be brain dead. Last week my husband was at dinner in an hotel in Scotland where he was given pats of butter with the words 'Warning. Contains milk'.

Patricia Thornton, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Unfortunately we tend to treat these things as a kind of exasperating joke. The problem of overmanagement and bureaucracy is deadly serious. People die because of the overmanagement of the NHS. Bureaucratic bloat is seen as inevitable, in the same way that child mortality once was.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Welsh doesn't typically look anything like English- their origins are completely different. It would therefore be almost impossible for a non-speaker to tell whether the text was 'about lorries' or not, regardless of 'incongruous' length.

And you know online translators are unreliable. Come on.

RJ, Cardiff,

So true and so sad. When did we become so pathetic?

Tim, London,

So what are we going to do about it?

Marsh Moyle, Greatham, UK

YES, right as usual, The constant caving in to small pressure groups in the name of political correctness and media led moral panics has led us down this route with a government micromanaging everything from afar to try and keep control, They want to govern zombies, robots would be to much trouble

am, letchworth,

A recent rugby match was broadcast only on C4C with Welsh commentary. All of the players and the referee were speaking English. All the adverts around the ground were in English. Yet we who pay for C4C with our taxes were excluded from the commentary.

Donald, London,

Much of the seeming useless legislation has been driven by an increasing litigatious society that will sue at the drop of a hat."Show me the money!"

David Kemp, Maldon, UK

Systems are typcially a response to cost cutting and poor education - if you can't get decent staff then de-skill the job - with inevitable results.

Andrew, London,

What a bulls-eye shot on the heart of the insane bureaucracy created over the last 20 years. Ushered in by the politicians in every possible way, thinking that having all these rules/regulations will make "people behave". Excellent article about the breakdown of common sense and rise of stupidity

A Hossman, Oslo,

This is Newlab rule and if you think asking 'why' is going to change anything you are mad. I gave up when threatened with 7 years imprisonment for not implementing anti money laundering against clients I had known for years. It is the draconian law behind it that ensures it's enforcement. 42 days?

Derek Morris, Salies, France

The reason we have dumb rules is because society gets outraged at things like smoking, parking, yoofs and countless other trifling matters.

Thus the gov takes responsibility because people are too selfish or pathetic to. A system is a poor substitute for common sense, but it's what you asked for.

R Wilson, Salisbury, Wiltshire

So the Welsh language must be like American...impossible to translate automatically. I tried similar translations of my USA company's press announcements into French and back again, and got absolute rubbish. Simple English phrases were ok.

Charles Bockett-Pugh, Sandhurst,

Yes, yes, yes! I agree with your ideas.

When the systems become more important than the people they're there to support we're sliding down a hole into a dis-empowered and damaged society where nobody CAN take responsibility to make their community a better place.

Simon, Brighton,

The Government doesn't want an intelligent, thinking public. It wants a dumbed-down set of sheeple ready and willing to accept its every word and command. This is the beginning of the end of personal freedom. Get ready for the thought-police!

RW, Madrid, Spain

quite true, the UK has gone mad. i live abroad and everytime i can back i find a example of a ridculous, What I dont understand is who supports these ridiculous rules ?? this summer i was fined by winchester city council for parking in a car park, despite having a valid pay and display.

andy anderson, rousse, bulgaria

I once saw an escalator (Debenhams, Oxford Street) with a sign warning you to stand between the yellow lines. There were none.

Peter, London, UK

One of the best things about any trip to the continent is the sudden evaporation of nagging saftey warnings, and the tangible, contingent increase in the sensation that people are capable of, and trusted to, take care of themselves. For me it's justification enough for a weekend break to Berlin.

Will, London,

Neil, from Birmingham>

I'm afraid you're just as guilty of blindly following rules as the school. How would they have stopped the two of you walking out together? Physically restrained you? Just ignore these jobsworths, so they learn the limits of their powers.

Dave Cameron, London, London

My local Sainsbury's has a moving walkway from the carpark which inclines about 8% and moves at about 2mph. A loud recorded voice proclaims "PLEASE HOLD THE HANDRAIL" every three seconds.

Malcolm, London, UK

This bilingualism has nothing to do with keeping the language alive, it is well and truly dead (it needs a University department to come up with new words - ie Computeg, Electroneg!) and few and fewer people are speaking it. Its all to do with giving public sector jobs to the Tafia!.

Kevin, Workington, Cumbria

I recently couldn't take my 15 yr old daughter from school for a Dental appointment as "my name was not on the list". I showed my passport plus letter from Dentist but still not good enough. The head told me that if she had brought in a note (possibly from anybody) that morning, she could have left!

Neil, Birmingham, England

In our local supermarket the other day, Stilton cheese was priced at £4.44 a pound and £10.76 a kilogram. I know which price I would have asked for if my blood cholesterol level allowed me to buy the stuff.

Tom, Crieff,