Registration, registration....

One of the features of NuLabour which is becoming very clear is the desire to obtain as much information as possible about everybody and to control as much as possible of what they do.

We saw this is in the case of two WPCs who did child-minding for each other and were running up against the law because they had not registered, paid, been "safeguarded" ( being CRB checked at work as constables is not sufficient), and also inspected by Ofsted. The outcry led to a promise to take such cases from legislation.

On September 30th a letter from a writer in Edinburgh to the Daily Telegraph gave another illustration. The writer had discussed with a disabled friend that his friend should live rent-free in the writer's flat for a period while the writer was abroad.

I quote from the letter. "I learnt from my local authority that under section 93 of the Anti-Social Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004, this conversation constituted a criminal offence. No one who has not previously registered as a landlord with their local authority, and paid a fat fee for the privilege, may legally engage in such a conversation." I wonder if some of the MPs, whose expenses led to renting a property to family members, have been awarded ASBOs. I can't believe that the English are not under the same control as the Scots!

Churches and village halls must now apply for a licence to permit entertainment on their premises. Some of the halls involved have used entertainment for years to defray expenses. Now they must register, and pay the inevitable fee, for the privilege. Since they could be prosecuted under other regulations if they made a nuisance to nearby residents, why must they register? Some of those on the borderline of financial balance may well be driven into insolvency.

I was led to believe that what consenting adults do in private is not the business of the government, where there are no taxation implications. Childcare arrangements between neighbours who have both been checked, should surely fall into this category also.

NuLabour has a prying, controlling philosophy which is entirely at odds with its desire to be seen as liberal, in areas such as 24 hour drinking.