The Times Online guest contributors Opinion

Via Tim Worstall I was directed to this piece by Jamie Whyte writing for The Times about the State micromanaging our lives, and the effects as more and more control is givern over to the Government:

"Redistributive policies naturally incline governments towards totalitarianism. When families provide the safety net, they also impose the discipline. When the State provides the safety net, families lose their incentive to discipline. Who, then, will do it? The State is the only candidate."

Which has led to our current state of affairs. The most authoritarian government to rule this country in hundreds of years:

"the policy trend is clear: an increasing micromanagement of the population in general and of children in particular. And, as its petty interventions fail, so the pressure for more drastic measures will build. On Wednesday Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, proposed a curfew on expelled pupils and a legal obligation for their parents to stay at home with them — in other words, house arrest."

Without trial. And the parents have had any power over their children destroyed, by state intervention, so when they are under house arrest they won't even be able to do anything to control the kids then.