This story made me laugh and shake my head at the same time. It says all you need to know about the entitlement mentality that has gripped Western society, especially in Britain and increasingly in America.

Drunk women who stagger about in high heels are to be protected – at public expense, mind you – from twisting their ankles.

This will be done by handing these women flip-flops to wear. Police will stand outside night clubs to see how well the high-heeled women are bearing-up and if they’re not, they are supposed to be given flip-flops. Already-overburdened taxpayers, who are about to be burdened even more if Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s tax proposals are enacted, will pay for the flip-flops.

Maybe they ought to be inside the bars, encouraging the women not to drink so much, but that would require a moral judgment and in an increasingly secular society we are told that moral judgments are worse than what used to be called immoral behavior. As a recent poll found, nearly half of the British people no longer believe in God. Staggering!

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.