Those of us in the States shouldn't feel too smug about this issue. Periodically the National Park Service has floated draconian restrictions on "commercial photography" with internal policy intentionally drafted to come down hard on anyone using a tripod. This has led to periodic 'clarifications' exempting amateurs, but (for example) anyone running a photography workshop in a National Park has to purchase a commercial usage license.
And ddk-
if you think we're headed for "socialist hell with high taxation under Obama", it's worth pointing out that the Reagan and Bush/Cheney administrations maliciously underfunded the National Park Service, leading directly to today's crumbling facilities and a near-criminal maintenance backlog at numerous parks. When you find a National Park facility without working plumbing (and I've been in a few) you can thank Saint Ronnie for that.
Better yet, under both Reagan and Bush/Cheney attempts were made to make the National Parks "pay their own way", by clear-cutting forests and mining on park land. The same logic led to efforts to extort more money from photographers by imposing commercial fees on anyone with a tripod. These efforts were beaten back by court challenges...but I'll wager you despise all the lawyers who were fighting for your rights, too.
In big government, the liberals aren't really liberal, and the conservatives aren't really conservative. True, we have a few reactionaries and crazies, but by and large it's about big business, whichever end of the stick you're being beaten with. But maybe that's a good thing, since there aren't as many ups and downs that way. And you hafta admit, there's a certain charm to voodoo economics - look how nicely we greased the door and slid out of that econo-prison this time! Or as Cheech and Chong famously said - "Ah, recession, repression, it's all the same thing, man."
In my current stint in NE Ohio, I discovered that the area has been virtually remade since I left in 1981, with parks galore, well maintained, with decent security and no gangs or other troublemakers, and no harrassment of photographers. And this, despite a serious decline in government revenues for this area, the so-called rust belt. How does that happen, that revenues decline drastically, yet the parks improve so much? I didn't bother asking anyone, having been here several months and taken a lot of tours, it seems that the parks have become a tourist attraction of some kind, like the beaches of Southern California, but with less obvious glamor and promotion. I'm guessing that similar logic can't or just doesn't apply to many of the national parks elsewhere, for whatever reason. It's time for someone to look at a successful model for these parks, and cut back on the wasted time agonizing about government disinterest.