Signposts on the Road to Serfdom

(UK) It's hard to dispute the contention that Britain has become a full-blown nanny state. In one illustration, the CEO of a children's charity, Martin Narey, proposes to stop fixing families that can't be fixed and just take the babies away.

''We can't keep trying to fix families that are completely broken. It sounds terrible, but I think we try too hard with birth parents.

''I have seen children sent back to homes that I certainly wouldn't have sent them back to. I have been extremely surprised at decisions taken.

''If we really cared about the interests of the child, we would take children away as babies and put them into permanent adoptive families, where we know they will have the best possible outcome.'

In another example, British parents are concerned about a secret government fat camp plan for overweight children.

Tens of thousands of overweight children – some as young as four – will be shipped off to fat camp, under a Government scheme to tackle obesity.

One can only guess how much more intrusive the British people will allow their government to become. Of course, the same statement could be said for Americans.