Bonfire of the bureaucrats
Friday, December 7, 2007 
Iain Dale, Britain's premier political blogger, an upwardly mobile political commentator, and a friend of The Free Society, has a column in today's Daily Telegraph. Headlined 'We need a bonfire of the bureaucrats', it begins:
It's difficult to pinpoint when the era of "big government" began, but it is sure that government plays a bigger part in the everyday life of the ordinary citizen than ever before. The Blair/Brown decade has seen an explosion in government interference, nanny statism, political correctness and an over-zealous health and safety culture.
Bravely, for a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservative party, he accuses the Tories of sometimes paying lip-service to the concept of a smaller state. I couldn't agree more.
Actions speak louder than words, but I really do believe that if we can get more people like Iain into parliament there is reason to hope that we may yet push back the frontiers of the nanny bully state. It won't happen overnight (I predict 10-15 years) but there is a light at the end of a long dark tunnel.
Full article HERE.
Reader Comments (1)
I like your optimism, I really do.
But I dont see it happening. We have bred children who are surrounded by fear. Stories of terror appear almost nightly on our screens, and even if they don't watch it, they surely hear their parents discussing it. Our children are super-clean, we routinely murder 99.9% of all known germs, and it shows. We have bred wimps, and these wimps will become tomorrows leaders. We don't let them play tag in the playground, we don't let them take risks, we constantly remind them that outside, danger lurks. A lot of it is sensible advice, but terrified parents breed terrified children. Terrified children become terrified adults. I shudder to think about tomorrows entrepreneurs, or even balanced lawmakers. Will there be any? Remove the "risk" element from everyones life and you remove a great deal. Fear has been over-used. I realise that every civilisation requires a control mechanism to avoid anarchy, but I don't think fear is the key. We have lost our way.
This government has been massively irresponsible by fostering and promoting a risk-free attitude to life.
I think it is set to become a whole lot worse, not better.