It is good to see that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has already got down to work by abolishing three quangos (quasi non-governmental organisation, quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, and quasi-autonomous national government organisation): The General Teaching Council for England, characterised as a “bureaucratic siphon” of money away from teaching; Becta, which advised schools on the purchase of IT equipment and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Authority, about which a teaching trade unionist said, “I frequently said that if the GTCE was abolished tomorrow few would notice and even less would care.” Let us hope that along with a bonfire of quangos, we will also witness the repeal of some of the 3000 laws passed under the Blair administration with many more under Brown. We should not forget that the quickest route to reducing crime is to reduce laws. And this is the theme of Philip Johnston’s “Bad Laws” (Constable).
In his “On Liberty”, published in 1859, John Stuart Mill defined the point at which legislation becomes oppressive to liberty: “The only purpose for which power can rightly be exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.” Since 2003 it has been illegal to own a horse, donkey or a Shetland pony without obtaining an identity card for the animal to ensure that it does not poison anyone who eats it. Letting off a firework after 11 p.m. can be punishable by six months in prison. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 criminalises “canoodling” by teenagers below the age of sixteen. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 has given the police authority to stop and question anyone within designated areas. It has been abused by councils. The police and other state agencies now have 266 separate powers to enter a home, often using force to do so. There has been a proliferation of databases ranging from ContactPoint with details of every child in the land, the NHS database and the largest DNA database in the world with profiles of a million innocent people. Council officials can examine phone and email details. The Licensing Act 2003 has produced many solid absurdities: when Zippo’s Circus arrived in Birmingham in 2008 the licensing officer declared that if the three Spanish clowns announced their act with a trumpet, tuba and exploding horn, it would be a live music performance and the big top would require a licence. The circus’s proprietor commented, “I am a big fan of silent comedy, but this is ludicrous.” Health and Safety is another area where government intrusion has become absurd with conker fights and cheese rolling banned.
Big government must cease. It cannot be afforded. It is a step towards a senseless & disorienting state. It saps the role of the individual. It is time wasting and deadens the economy. Perhaps the traditions of paternalism and liberalism which lie at the historical roots of our present coalition government can reverse the tide – as is already happening with the cancellation of ID cards.
A more extreme solution would be that practised in the Greek colony of Locri Epizefiri in Italy in 660 BC. “A Locrian (politician) who proposed any new law stood forth in the assembly of the people with a cord around his neck and if the law was rejected the innovator was instantly strangled.”
No comments:
Post a Comment