Red tape is the disease that only ever gets worse: but we seem to tolerate its endless creep as if it were a natural phenomenon, like the weather. Why is this?
Its increase is partly a result of risk aversion and avoidance of blame: there is a growing inability to tolerate any mistake, injury, wrongdoing or abnormality. Everywhere from playgrounds to building sites to factories, we are more afraid of accidents, more squeamish, more timid. Bureaucrats imagine the worst that can happen.
All this fear is exacerbated by litigation. Local government or businesses dealing with the public suffer ever higher liability insurance premiums, and rafts of claims. These undermine trust and mean more small print, more permits and more pedantry.
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