The laziest attitude to strike in politics is to rail against red tape and regulation. Form-filling? Busybody, unelected bureaucrats interfering with our ancient freedoms and obstructing entrepreneurial wealth creation? It’s easy to utter our disdain, especially if the regulation has anything to do with the EU – the “corpse” to which Britain was shackled and from which it is now liberated. Hence the bill currently in the House of Lords, launched by Jacob Rees-Mogg during his stint as one of our shortest-lived secretaries of state for business, to end in one stroke a swath of regulation and the tyranny of EU bureaucrats. About 3,700 regulations that emanated from the darkest city in Europe – Brussels – are to be scrapped by the end of the year.
Red tape for red tape’s sake? In truth, there is no such thing. Regulation is the foundation of our civilisation. I am delighted that older cars must have MOTs, that employees have a right to paid holiday, that the drugs the doctor prescribes are safe, that lead in paint is prohibited, that the pesticides used in gardens won’t kill us, that the water we drink is clean and that restaurant and pub kitchens are regularly checked. So too, although they will never admit as much, are the ardent deregulators and apostles of the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill set to revoke many of these “burdens” and “obstacles” to our freedom and prosperity.
