I was going to write about why people are irrational, but the sheer stupidity of the EU bureaucracy trumps ordinary irrationality.

I think everyone in Britain knows by now that the EU now requires that all children under 12 years old or less than 135cm tall must use a child car seat.

The debate about the right of parents to decide versus that of governments to ensure safety is irrelevant.

Children’s car seats certainly make children safer, but the only reason the are safer for children over two is because they force the use of seat belts. In other words, this makes children no safer than the older law requiring the use of seat belts.

The evidence has been well studied by economist Steven Levitt. His website had both a readable summary of his conclusions here and a more detailed academic paper.

So what is the point of this law. Nothing at all — except higher profits for car seat manufacturers.

The other lesson of this is that if the UK is to remain in the EU, then we must learn countries like France and not enforce clearly silly laws.