In Britain, everything is policed except crime. - Mark Steyn, After America.

I am eclectic; you are eccentric; he is barking mad. -unknown

It's better to step on toes than walk on eggs. - The Sanity Inspector, alt.quotations, thread "Eggs or Eggshells?" 16 Sep. 1999

Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass
through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the
post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he
liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel
abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of
official permission. He could exchange his money for any other
currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any
country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For
that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without
permit and without informing the police. Unlike the countries of the
European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform
military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the
regular army, the navy, or the territorials. He could also ignore, if
he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders
were occasionally called on for jury service. Otherwise, only those
helped the state who wished to do so. The Englishman paid taxes on a
modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913-14, or rather less than 8
per cent. of the national income. The state intervened to prevent the
citizen from eating adulterated food or contracting certain infectious
diseases. It imposed safety rules in factories, and prevented women,
and adult males in some industries, from working excessive hours. The
state saw to it that children received education up to the age of 13.
Since 1 January 1909, it provided a meagre pension for the needy over
the age of 70. Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of
workers against sickness and unemployment. This tendency towards more
state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had
roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly
speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help
themselves. It left the adult citizen alone. - AJP Taylor, English History, 1914-1945