Lawrie Boxall

Just to recommend others to listen to this - Simon Jenkins on R4. I caught some of it last night and found it very interesting especially the stats on how the numbers of Criminal Justice Bills has accelerated from Thatcher's time onward. If you missed it well worth listening again.

This from the BBC website:

20:45 Mad as Hell
1/3. The first of three talks by columnist Simon Jenkins. Why is everyone who comes INTO phpbb_contact with modern British government mad as hell?
Thatcherism was supposed to roll back the frontiers of the state and disengage government from the people. Yet after a quarter century of privatisation we seem more enmeshed in Whitehall rules, regulation and red tape than ever.

At the recent election, every party promised to cut back on every facet of over-regulation, in hospitals, schools, police, health and safety, even farming and building work. They seem unable to deliver. Why? What is it about modern society that seems to crave liberty but also to crave more state intervention?

[Rpt of Sun 10.45pm]