Bad Laws: An Explosive Analysis of Britain's Petty Rules, Health and = Safety=20 Lunacies and Madcap Laws by Philip Johnston: review

Ben Wilson is liberated by Bad Laws, Philip Johnston's account of = the=20 ridiculous licencising acts that have tied up spontaneous acts of fun = with red=20 tape

By Ben Wilson 6:00AM BST 13 Apr 2010=20

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E P Thompson once wrote of =93a very ancient tradition in Britain of=20 bloody-mindedness towards the intrusion of authority=94. Permissions, = permits and=20 licenses were things that cursed those who had the misfortune to be born = elsewhere. Compare this with the experiences of Clive Fairweather. For = the past=20 four decades playing =93Old Fairweather=94, a farm labourer, he has = entertained=20 festivals with tales from British history. This he did without trouble = until=20 2005 when the Licensing Act required him to fill out six forms and pay = =A321. As=20 he told Philip Johnston: =93There will be no alcohol, no amplification, = no=20 subversion of the state, no threat to public order. But for the first = time in 40=20 years, I was obliged to buy a licence =96 at a time when the Government = is urging=20 us to celebrate our Britishness, to rediscover our national stories.=94 =

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Part of me hopes Old Fairweather subverts the state by recounting = those parts=20 of our history that celebrate revolting peasants, defiant Roundheads,=20 disobedient Whigs or any other of Thompson=92s =93bloody-minded=94 = Britons. At a time=20 when politicians have a weak grasp on history, and when the subject = takes a back=20 seat in the curriculum, it might count as a revolutionary act. Recent = licensing=20 acts have had an impact on cultural life. Village hall events, school = plays,=20 travelling circuses, pub musicians and other types of spontaneous fun = have been=20 tied up in red tape. As Johnston writes of the present Government: =93It = evinced a=20 predisposition to micromanage individual behaviour and ride roughshod = over=20 liberties, both of which are very non-British traits.=94

Johnston describes the torrent of legislation that has poured forth. = It would=20 make depressing reading were it not for the author=92s wit and passion. = The=20 ill-thought-through meddlesome rules have limited free speech, the right = to=20 protest and other essential civil liberties.

Bad Laws is a call to arms that shows how poorly drafted bills = have=20 been hustled through parliament with unseemly haste. Many anti-terror = laws and=20 criminal justice measures have been passed to =93send a message=94. = Others have been=20 a crude form of social engineering.

The knee-jerk response might be to damn government in all its forms. = That=20 would be dangerous. As Johnston argues, we need a fundamental change in = our=20 political culture. In recent weeks, a parliamentary committee has = recommended a=20 review of anti-terror laws. For Johnston that would be the first step in = a much=20 deeper process. A political party which promised that would do very = well. But it=20 would take political courage. So don=92t hold your breath. =

* Ben Wilson is the author of What Price Liberty?: How Freedom Was = Won and=20 Is Being Lost (Faber, =A39.99)

Bad=20 Laws: an Explosive Analysis of Britain=92s Petty Rules, Health and = Safety=20 Lunacies and Madcap Laws

by Philip Johnston

288pp, Constable, =A38.99

Buy now for =A38.99 (PLUS 99p p&p) 0844 871 1514 or from Telegraph=20 Books

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/75685= 25/Bad-Laws-An-Explosive-Analysis-of-Britains-Petty-Rules-Health-and-Safe= ty-Lunacies-and-Madcap-Laws-by-Philip-Johnston-review.html

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