Do we live in a Nanny State?

As an old moaning bigot, I thoroughly enjoy my subscription to The Spectator which publishes a rather jovial 'Nanny State Index' which compares the 'sin' taxation of guilty pleasures (fags and alcohol) of 30 nations in the European continent. The UK is 11th worst out of 30 states.

However, it is no joke and goes much further than tax on your ciggies, the current cost of living crisis has been brought on by our own Government. The Government pathetically plead with the supermarkets to lower food prices, while councils across the country are teetering on bankruptcy and increasing council tax by 10-20% over the next two to three years. Inflation is still proving more persistent for one very reason, it is manipulated to reduce the real terms value of the money they borrowed when they shut down the countries economy. Yes, they borrowed tax payers money, give it to banks who then loaned it back to us with interest and now they are setting about devaluing that debt to make it more manageable so they can borrow more.

While all that is going on, to save face and fool most people, the Government launch a number of 'economy boosting' initiatives such as Levelling up which has set aside ￡48bn to help us out. Now hang on just a second Rishi Sunak , so you are borrowing more of our money to help us out again? Oh you're too kind. Now obviously this latest Quango will not run itself, it will need some of the greatest business minds to ensure the funds are dispersed in the most effective way... I'm being ironic if you hadn't noticed.

Now we're all feeling the pinch in someway I guess? Well alarmingly that doesn't extend to the UK Civil Service who are on another recruitment drive it would appear as they turn this country into a sudo communist state. The job boards are awash with adverts pitching a variety of positions. This is not a new trend by any means, the number of people in public sector employment has increased by more than 1 million since 2013.

Obviously all these new employees have made life so easy for us small business owners and people who are employed in the real world, yes? You can see the irony creeping back in! I've been in business for some 14 years this year and it has gradually become worse every year in that time to actually do business, you are shackled by bureaucracy. One of many many examples I'm experiencing at the moment is the UK Home Office insisting that import certificates issued by the Dutch government can't be in Dutch and must be in English, NO I am not making that up. All that does is make it even more difficult for me to do business.

Now call me a Luddite, I was under the impression that the wealth generated by the private sector goes to pay for the public sector, or is that a too simplified thought process? How does an economy in recession pay for more and more people to be employed in the public sector?

How about we remove 500k people from the Public Sector, give them ￡100k each from the levelling up fund and get them to set up a new business. I wonder how many would survive?