Excellent comment from The Times:
This Government has relentlessly undermined the rule of law by its vague legislation and constant meddling.
And, after explaining that the first erosion of the rule of law is passing “laws so vague that you cannot know, prior to the decision of the relevant authority, whether your actions are lawful”:
The second erosion of the rule of law comes from the Government’s open contempt for the idea that the law defines the scope of the Government’s interest in you, that you can be on the wrong side of the Government only by being on the wrong side of the law. For example, it is not illegal to have fat children. Yet we know that the Government disapproves of parents who do, since it sends them letters pointing out their children’s obesity. “We’ve got our eye on you,” they insinuate. To which a free man should respond: “If I have committed a crime, arrest me; otherwise, leave me alone.”
