And whilst I'm in a mood...

...just what is it with the forelock tugging, knee bending, take my trousers down and insert-a-large-cucumber-up-my-backside Brits that they have such reverence for authority?

My father - God rest! - had a sensible respect for authority. He was born to relative affluence in between-the-wars Poland: had a nicely privileged upbringing; and saw at first hand what authority did to those who disagreed with it. When he was still young enough to do so, he went on marches. So he was able to witness how the Nationalist Police dealt with those who challenged governmental wisdom. Batons came into it somewhere.

Almost 50 years later, my cousin was active in Solidarnosc (Solidarity). When General Jaruzelski decided to "save the country" by imposing martial law, we spent a few days in real fear for what might have happened to her.

The story is much the same across the rest of Europe. In the last few decades, it has really mattered what you thought and said.

The wrong word in the wrong ear could see you picked up in the middle of the night and removed to some anonymous prison for interrogation. Or worse. France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Italy. Not one of them escaped the viciousness of authoritarian tyranny.

As for Eastern Europe! Whatever the West suffered, they endured ten times over.

Which may be why, across most of Europe, people are rather wary of trusting their Governments. Because they know what they can do.

Unlike the UK. We have never quite seen authority in all its awful splendour. So we have no sense of self preservation in the face of New Labour encroachments.

Elsewhere, I have railed against New Labour as the puritan, nannying bossy-boots tendency that it is. But that is only half the story. The other half is that no matter what inane and half-baked scheme they come up with to make us even "safer", a large proportion of the British public will go along with it every time.

Because (see last post): if you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to fear.

Arrrrrgh!

"New Labour: New Puritanism"

That's the working title. Of course, titles can change.

The ambition is a book that examines two questions. Have we, as a nation, become more puritan over the last ten years? And how far can that be attributed directly to New Labour?

The obvious answers seem to recede as the questions come into focus. So it feels as though I have a happy few months of research ahead of me.

At the same time, any thoughts, angles, intuitions or perceptions on this issue would be exceedingly welcome.