Nick Collins
The Daily Telegraph
January 30, 2010
Editor’s note: Pretty soon just about everything will be illegal.
Labour has made 4,289 activities illegal since the 1997 election, at a rate of about one a day – twice the speed with which the previous Conservative government created crimes.
Gordon Brown was the worst offender, with his government inventing 33 new crimes a month. Tony Blair’s administration made 27 new offences each month.
Some of the more inventive crimes dreamt up by Labour include "disturbing a pack of eggs when directed not to by an authorised officer" and reporting the door of a merchant ship to be closed and locked when it isn't.
Labour also introduced laws against activities which would already have been covered by previous legislation – such as "causing a nuclear explosion."
Liberal Democrat home office spokesman Chris Huhne, who brought the figures to light, will criticise the government's administrative binge in a speech tonight.
He will say Labour has spent 12 years "suffering from the most acute and
prolonged bout of legislative diarrhoea", calling the rate of 69 new
Home Affairs Bills in 12 years "staggering".
