Philosophical atomic elbow drop

H/T Don Boudreaux.

From Lectures on the Relation Between Law & Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century, 1905 by Albert Venn Dicey.

Parliament in most instances pays little regard to any general principle whatever, but attempts to meet in the easiest and most off-hand manner some particular grievance or want. Parliament is guided not by considerations of logic but by the pressure which powerful bodies can bring to bear upon its action.