the fourth place

A hit tip to Samizdata for this one, and a special mention for TimC who wrote:

Having a Lawyer in charge of government is like having an arms dealer in charge of the FCO.

For now Blair's regulatory perogative is extending to alll the way down to Children's lunchboxes in a manner that teaches them that the state knows better than thier mother and trains them to snitch on each other. The bonkers assertion of an Orwell fan? No not really:

"Research shows the average packed lunch parents prepare is nutritionally poorer than even the current standard of school meals," says Leather controversially.

Ok, I'm the person to advocate the suppression of controverial research (if it indeed exists) but get this...

At Charlton Manor primary, the head, Tim Baker, says: "Children get stickers for healthy boxes... If a child brings in a chocolate bar, we take it out of the lunchbox and give it back to the parent at the end of the day." Pupils give each other away, he confides: "They say, 'Miss, he’s got sweets in his box'."

Does Leather approve of what smacks rather of the nanny state? Absolutely. "If you are producing high-quality food and at the same time turning a blind eye to unhealthy packed lunches there is an inconsistency there," she says.

I'm not sure I ever needed much prompting to question authority, but I'd be much happier having children (one day, my children) taught to question and decide intellectually whether to obey authority rather than have them embroiled in an emotive struggle for authority over such trivialities. If there is to be a struggle, I'm just a little too worried about who might win and what that means for the strength of families. Orwell did warn us that eventually we might live only by ourselves with the only love in our lives a love of the State, this seems rather a direct ploy to acheive that aim.

PS, for someone who grew up under Major, am I sounding a like a Tory or what?