A major policy review initiated by UK prime minister Tony Blair will examine the future relationship between citizen and state – and it looks like the government will concern itself with everything from our family lives to our diets and hips. The Cabinet Office has spoken of creating ‘a new more explicit contract between the state and the citizen on agreed public outcomes’. Agreed by the six cabinets conducting the policy review, that is.

So far, it seems the government’s review is in fact a comprehensive behaviour modification scheme. Some key proposals include local health authorities only offering hip replacement to patients who try to keep their weight down and parents having to sign individual contracts with schools outlining what they are expected to do at home to advance their child’s education.

As citizens we are apparently no longer simply required by the state to pay taxes and obey the law. Instead, if we expect quality services from the National Health Service, publicly funded education and the police, something has got to give. In this case, it is our freedom to live our lives without state intrusion and without being dictated to by officialdom.

Nathalie Rothschild