1) Holding someone down and force-feeding them cake is the common law offence of battery, punishable in the magistrates court by a fine and up to six months in prison for a single offence.
2) Regulatory agencies are funny places to work - I used to work in a very prominent one. To succeed there, you have to have an ideological (or, I guess, spiritual) zeal that makes you really believe that your work is making people’s lives incalculably better, even when your own eyes and ears suggest otherwise. Nobody (except perhaps me) goes to work there and says ‘we need less regulation,’ or even, ‘we’ve got enough regulation here already;’ you’re effectively arguing yourself out of a job. So on they go, looking for more causes to justify their budget, salary, car, and pension contributions.
To your last paragraph, the Conservative party isn’t conservative and hasn’t been for some time. You only have to listen to what comes out of their mouths (the Online “Safety” Bill being the latest egregious example) to know that they believe in the regulation of almost everything as much as those of a more openly big state persuasion do. When you realise that the takeover of the institutions hasn’t been limited to making the likes of the truly awful Jebb an automatic choice for every quango vacancy but has extended to the Conservative Party and the CofE you know that the cause of freedom is pretty much lost. I’m not sure that a spell on the opposition benches will address the problem. That requires root and branch reform of the party so that local Conservative Associations regain full control of
Indeed, just when we thought that this utterly patronizing paternalism couldn't get any worse, there it is. My theory on the origins of this concept is that it can be traced to a gross misinterpretation of St. Paul's "weaker brother" principle, transmogrified into the highly toxic "tyranny of the weaker brother". From the same guy who effectively gave us the equally toxic idea of "divine rights of kings", no less. And the rest is history....
Great article. A couple of reflections:
1) Holding someone down and force-feeding them cake is the common law offence of battery, punishable in the magistrates court by a fine and up to six months in prison for a single offence.
2) Regulatory agencies are funny places to work - I used to work in a very prominent one. To succeed there, you have to have an ideological (or, I guess, spiritual) zeal that makes you really believe that your work is making people’s lives incalculably better, even when your own eyes and ears suggest otherwise. Nobody (except perhaps me) goes to work there and says ‘we need less regulation,’ or even, ‘we’ve got enough regulation here already;’ you’re effectively arguing yourself out of a job. So on they go, looking for more causes to justify their budget, salary, car, and pension contributions.
To your last paragraph, the Conservative party isn’t conservative and hasn’t been for some time. You only have to listen to what comes out of their mouths (the Online “Safety” Bill being the latest egregious example) to know that they believe in the regulation of almost everything as much as those of a more openly big state persuasion do. When you realise that the takeover of the institutions hasn’t been limited to making the likes of the truly awful Jebb an automatic choice for every quango vacancy but has extended to the Conservative Party and the CofE you know that the cause of freedom is pretty much lost. I’m not sure that a spell on the opposition benches will address the problem. That requires root and branch reform of the party so that local Conservative Associations regain full control of
Indeed, just when we thought that this utterly patronizing paternalism couldn't get any worse, there it is. My theory on the origins of this concept is that it can be traced to a gross misinterpretation of St. Paul's "weaker brother" principle, transmogrified into the highly toxic "tyranny of the weaker brother". From the same guy who effectively gave us the equally toxic idea of "divine rights of kings", no less. And the rest is history....
Did she catch an episode of Brass Eye and think it was a documentary?