A while ago i asked a question on twitter to which i didn't get an answer, The question was "When was the last time a government left office with less laws than when they came to power?"
The reason i ask this is because if passing a law solved the problem the UK should be a utopia of peace and harmony. The last Government passed all type of laws yet by the time they left office we were in a worse state than when they came to power. Its not just criminal laws, There was a law taking people out of "poverty" ( in days gone by that would be called getting a job), But to do it they had bribe people with tax credits, so they take your taxes then hire people to process the forms to give you back a slice of the money they took in the first place (why not just cut everyones taxes?).
See that is one example of well intentioned legalisation (or forcing state dependency depending on how you look at it) that has unintended consequences, loads of fraud, wrong claims etc.
And then there is anti terror legalisation (that would only be used for terrorists, tho who decide ho the terrorists are is down to the state), despite voiced concerns about how it would be used it went into law and then the State abused the power.
Anyway this current Government promised us "the great repeal bill", now that was two years ago and yet no sign of it. So i will predict that at the end of this parliament there will more laws and regulations than at the beginning.
You don't put lunatics in charge of the mad house, you don't put thieves in charge of the bank and of course you don't let lawyers make the law.
Gladstone repealed a lot of laws, abolished many abusive practices such as the purchase of commissions in the army, got rid of local taxation, brought income tax down from 6d in the pound to 3d, and abolished duties on tea, sugar and paper. But I don't know whether he finished his long time in office with fewer laws than when he started.
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