An example of the...

"soft and creeping totalitarianism that comes with unctuous offers of benefits and avowals of purity of intention, rather than the boot-in-the-face variety of Orwell’s description. It is the insinuation of the government into the nooks and crannies of everyday life, on the pretext that people are incapable of deciding anything for themselves. Everyone is a child for whom the government is in permanent loco parentis (except children, of course, who can consent to sex at age 16 and are to be given the vote at the same age, if Chancellor Brown has his way). "

Theodore Dalrymple on the UK. Enjoy/despair.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_oh_to_be.html

(hat tip: www.eursoc.com)