Reflecting on the recent Queen’s speech, for the second time I am in complete agreement with the Prime Minister – it’s criminal.

The Government has used procedures that were introduced to save Parliamentary time to pass thousands of laws which criminalise activity and behaviour which many would agree is undesirable but hardly worthy of a criminal conviction.

Does it matter? Of course. Partly because if the trend continues everybody in the country will have a criminal record. Maybe this is the reason behind the criminalisation of trivia – no need for data protection laws and selective databases if everyone has a criminal record and is included on one criminal database. Logically, the trend will lead to the criminalisation of birth, allowing everyone born in the UK to be given a criminal record along with their £500 and added to the database.

It matters greatly to those of us who are left who believe in individual freedom and liberty. Fundamental to liberty is the right to action not specifically proscribed by law. Those opposed to liberty, for whatever reason, have always sought to use the law to restrict and control individuals and ensure that they conform to the wishes of the state. Socialist governments always seek to control their citizens, concentrating power in a few privileged members of the elite who govern and who help those who govern. Corrupt patronage is despicable, whether in the former communist Soviet Union or a government of the UK.

Herein may lie another reason for the increase in criminalisation of trivial actions. Traditionally, British has allowed citizens to do anything not specifically illegal. European law, derived from the Romans, allows citizens to do what the law allows. How do you reconcile the two in one super state without changing UK law to the European tradition? Why, by passing UK laws which criminalise everything.

It is not only this government’s attitude to and use of legislation that is criminal. It is criminal how they have sought to destroy the health service in order to control spiraling costs. UK health practitioners are among the best in the world. It is criminal that mis-management destroys so much of the good that they do.

It is criminal that education has been corrupted to support the government’s agenda. How do you prevent opposition? Use a veneer of concern over quality to impose a curriculum and content which ensures that citizens only learn what supports the government agenda. Central to this is to ensure that history is effectively ignored, or re-written to ignore understanding and interpretation that would challenge the government line. Essential to this is the absolute control over the training of educators. Current moves to extend control over content to university teaching under the guise of quality poses perhaps the most significant threat to liberty and freedom that this country has faced since the Magna Carta.

So for the second time I agree wholeheartedly with the prime Minister – it’s criminal. And the first time that I agreed – it’s time to go.