From parking wardens generating record profits for councils through to bans on smoking and busking, the authorities are making more and more previously normal activities illegal or subject to onerous regulation. Yet it is not clear who benefits from this micromanagement of our lives.
Here, Josie Appleton talks about her new book, 'Officious: The rise of the Busybody State', which examines the causes and consequences of this trend.
#BattleFest2019: The Life of Brian at 40 - are we more easily offended today?
#BattleFest2019: Titania McGrath - satire in the age of social justice
#BattleFest2019: Interrogating anti-Semitism with Deborah Lipstadt and Frank Furedi
#BattleFest2019: Are the old political parties dying?
#BattleFest2019: Education culture wars - what should be the role of schools today?
#BattleFest2018: Tearing up the rule book - the end of the new world order?
#BattleFest2018: The moral case for abortion
#BattleFest2018: The crisis of diplomacy in the era of Trump
#BattleFest2018: Feminism - in conversation with Camille Paglia
#BattleFest2018: Can we revive Britain’s ’Rust Belt’?
#EconomyForum: How can we revive UK economic growth?
#BattleFest2018: Culture - who pays?
#BattleFest2018: From robots to UBI - is capitalism digging its own grave?
#BattleFest2018: Do the right thing? The moral responsibility of the artist
#BattleFest2018: From anti-vaxers to Alfie’s army - have we lost faith in medical science?
#BattleFest2018: Understanding anti-Semitism today
#BattleFest2018: How fear works
#BattleFest2018: Automatic lovers - should we be worried about sex robots?
#BattleFest2018: Does our DNA define us?
#BattleFest2018: Democracy under siege?
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