Either the citizens own the state, or the state owns the citizens.

In the latter case there are no citizens. Only serfs.

The modern state tells us what not to do and sets conditions on what we can do. But it so far has not sought to demand that contracts be made between private citizens.

Since any such contracts would not be contracts. They would have no moral authority. The state would have nationalised private integrity and freedom of choice.

And any attempt to impose such pseudo-contracts in a democracy surely will be unconstitutional?

So much for the USA. What about the UK?

Yesterday I heard how Health & Safety tyrants had pored all over a tent-hire business, asserting in oppressive and intrusive detail exactly how tents should be erected lest the business be operating ‘illegally’.

Or try this horror:

New-style inspections have already attracted criticism because of the emphasis on making pupils feel “safe” – one of the watchdog’s three priorities.

Some schools have reported being marked down because fences around playing fields were too low or inspectors were able to gain access to the building without being asked for identification

This is an overtly fascistic agenda. To nationalise ‘safety’ in such a way that only the state can decide what it is or is not.

The correct answer from a head teacher when one of these odious Ofsted people appears at a school without fences and security cameras is to say the following:

The children here feel safe and are safe because we are teaching them the institutions and values of a free society, where the great mass of law-abiding people live honourable lives.

We want them to be brought up in a society where people trust each other and to manage the risks intelligently – that is the basis for authentic democratic safety.

You by contrast want to put people in little boxes. You live off creating a nervous sense of weakness and insecurity, of suspicion and state-sponsored unease.

You are oppressing and dividing us. You and your neurotic grasping bureaucracy are morally unsafe. We hate you and what you represent.

Now get out of this school and never come back. Or I’ll set the children on to you.

That should be a resoundingly cheery way to start 2010.