Do you get the feeling that every day a bit more government impacts into your life?
The moment we step out of our door, Big Brother is watching us, thanks to cameras in shops, streets, public buildings, et al.
Step into a car and we become a big target, not so much to stop us wrong-doing but to see how much money Big Brother ca
n extract from us.
If Big Brother really wanted to help us, he would have devised ways of detecting those hundreds of thousands of motorists who are driving without insurance.
Instead, he puts up speed cameras to catch us speeding, and I found it staggering that the government is coining in £88 million a year from speeding tickets. That's an astronomical £240,000 each and every day.
What I hate most about speed cameras is that they stop speeding only at one place. My sat-nav bleeps at me to tell me I'm approaching a camera and I can adjust my speed accordingly.
The Mercs, BMW and 4x4 tanks all slow down and then zoom past me back to near 100mph on the A24 and on motorways in the almost certain knowledge there won't be a police patrol around to catch them.
Making money comes first every time, whether it's detecting excise licence dodgers or car parking. Councils are making a fortune policing car parking to finance their spend, spend ways.
Every week something new gets onto the statute book, either from Europe or Whitehall, so much so that there are very few of us who don't commit one transgression or other every day without even realising!
We need to get some government excesses out of our lives, otherwise, in a few years, it just won't be worth living.
It's got a lot worse on the altar of anti-terror legislation. Police now have powers to arrest anyone for little reason and the government seem hell-bent on pushing through identity cards despite public opposition.
The good folk of Manchester are going to be trialled to voluntarily apply for cards which will cost £30 each.
The government argues the £5 billion plan would reduce fraud, combat terrorism and organised crime.
Can anyone really believe that any would-be terrorist would apply for an identity card? Illegal immigrants certainly won't.
If this ever becomes compulsory, Big Brother will rule. Let's hope Manchester does for this hare-brained nonsense what they did with the suggested imposition of congestion charges in the city.
Perhaps at some point in Britain's future, government, local, regional and national will just do what the public want them to do – deliver the basic services to run the country and allow the people enjoy their lives without State interference and control at every turn.
