A UK government report says that alcohol abuse costs the country £20bn a year. Half the streetcrime is alcohol-related, as is much of the absenteeism from work. And excess alcohol causes 22,000 early deaths a year.

Excess alcohol drinking may be a problem, but it's nothing compared with excess government - which costs the country more like £500bn a year, a staggering 42 percent of everything we earn.

Too much crime is government-related too. Prostitution's a crime only because politicians think it's infra dig. Employers become criminals when they accidentally breach any of the 15,000 new regulations brought in since 1997. So do people who can't afford to dispose legally of their old car or old fridge under the new environmental rules. And anyone who dares smoke in public-sector buildings. 661 new criminal offences have been created since 1997. Excess government is turning us all into criminals.

Government's a major cause of absenteeism. Workers in our big ministries take off 9.5 days a year, 50 percent above the national average, costing taxpayers £640 per civil-servant.

And premature death? 5000 people a year die from infections they pick up in our filthy NHS hospitals, and they are the ones lucky enough to get into hospital before they drop dead or become inoperable anyway. Need I go on?