That PJ O’Rourke question - when is government finished?

Peej once asked that, well, since the US has been doing government for a couple of centuries now when is it finished? When have we solved all the problems amenable to government solution and therefore we can wax fat and happy resting upon our laurels? Given that we in Britain have been a more or less centralised state for a millennium now this applies in rather more force to us.

Apparently not yet:

England wildlife watchdog ‘has stopped designating special sites for protection’

Exclusive: Report finds Natural England has created no new SSSIs, which protect areas from development, since 2023

We’ve been doing such designating since 1949. Even the most recalcitrant bureaucracy ought to be able to achieve a task in getting on for 80 years, no? The land area of Britain is fixed, it hasn’t changed except at the most trivial margin this past century, surely by now we’re done?

“This must change immediately. The designation pipeline needs to be reopened, sites must be designated without further delay, and the government must stop starving the system of resources.”

Apparently not. Given that a system for so designating exists therefore the process must be ongoing and more and more of Britain must be ruled off limits to anyone ever doing anything with it. It’s even possible to postulate that some people think of government as a journey with no destination. The important thing is that government does things, not what is done nor when, of even that, government has done enough.

It is an interesting question, isn’t it? When actually, are we done with more government, when do we decide that we’ve enough of that, thank you, time to turn our attention to other aspects of life?

Tim Worstall