Society ultimately has to run on trust. Just look at the promise on a banknote. Without trust it is just a worthless piece of paper
We seem to be living in a society which is less & less prepared to trust. Under a Government which does not want to trust its citizens. Prove you are who you say you are or we will have to assume youre a money launderer or a terrorist. Prove you have no criminal record or we will have to assume you are a paedophile
Squawking at you all the time. Smoking is a criminal (!) offence. Approval needed to buy matches or the Saturday edition of The Times.
All sorts of officials may or may not have the power to fine me for something or the other. Putting an empty sardine can in with the non-recyclable rubbish. Failure to wash my plastic bottles. Who knows - nobody I suspect, with the number of new offences created in recent years
Ignorance of the law may well be no defence, but the citizen ought to have at least a sporting chance of knowing what it is
And with such a proliferation of offences, enforcement must become more random & thus increasingly arbitrary & unfair. This can only add to a general sense of cynicism, among both enforcers & enforcees. It it any wonder we can hardly be bothered to vote? We are just acting like bored & bolshie teenagers - yeah, yeah, whatever
If a (normally) lawabiding old lady can feel like this, its no wonder some just take the attitude - may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb
