If State Control Is Success, What Does Failure Look Like?

Wow! What a weekend that was! Two unrelated celebrations - apart from both involving joyous consumption of wine, of course - in Puddlecoteville has meant that I've barely touched a computer ... not even to place the almost religious Saturday bet.

However, catching up last night and today it's clear that the EU has finally stopped pretending and admitted that it is an elaborate grand larceny scam, while all three main UK parties have dispensed with one of the last of the country's freedoms so the press and blogs are hindered in the role of holding the state to account.

The Cyprus situation is truly staggering! Without warning and, I expect, not even the smallest of small print of any bank contract saying that it could be a possibility, savers are to have 6%-10% of their already taxed savings stolen by the super state. As it stands, it appears that those savings aren't even allowed to be accessed at all ... politicians have effectively frozen them until Thursday as usually can only happen if criminality is suspected.

But then, states are used to treating all of us like criminals unless proven otherwise.

Here we are crippled by a recession unsolvable due to worldwide over-spending by politicians, and it's the public who are being punished for it. Yet you just know, don't you, that come Question Time on Thursday the same exhortation will spew forth from the audience ... "what is the government going to do about it?"

Governments have collectively gotten us into a position where their spending is through the roof; they are universally despised for fighting wars it is clear they lied about; they have systematically dismantled democracy; turned our schools into a political tool; installed themselves as nannies over how we choose to live; yet many seem to think we need more of their incompetent interference, not less.

There are reports that Osborne may increase the beer duty escalator despite pubs (which politicians really like, apparently) already suffering through years of political interference. For why? Well, to appease the unelected, state-funded health lobby and to fund a freeze on fuel duty which effectively means they will generously stop stealing from us for a short few months.

Courts are to be given powers to hold secret hearings, thereby dispensing with centuries of a transparent judicial system. But it's OK, politicians assure us they can be trusted ... just like their expenses claims in 2009 and their cast-iron guarantees and their assurances about WMDs.

Seriously, why does anyone believe that more tinkering by government is any kind of solution to anything when every time they poke their arrogant noses in, things just get worse?

Random image: Father Ted fixes a tiny dent on a new car

As a result of the EU's decision to go all Boardwalk Empire on us, Twitter is alive with innovative ways of converting savings into other tangible investments; customers in other Eurozone countries are independently creating a multi-country run on banks to divert to any continent but Europe; and stocks are probably being traded over to the Far East as I write. While smug UK politicos are congratulating each other for a confusing and illiberal measure which looks like raising open revolt from the media just to satisfy a guy who used to be in Four Weddings and his equally irresponsible and myopic ideologues.

The state is not any friend of yours or mine, it is the enemy. The state is an entity which says it cares about cost of living rises while simultaneously raising the cost of everything you buy with ridiculous over-regulation; an entity which claims it endorses free speech while passing laws to censor it; an entity which talks about austerity for its employers while blithely pissing your money down the drain on pet schemes. Indeed, even an entity which is appalling with your healthcare but still says it is brilliant because it tackles the chocolate orange.

I don't know about you, but I hear the faint twang of piano wire.