Ghost of a flea

Not only do we have an overweening Government determined to regulate every aspect of personal life, from hunting and religious jokes to the typefaces on private websites (in the interests of the �visually impaired�), but its ambitions seem to be growing without limit. Charles Clarke wants to imprison people without trial. Ruth Kelly wants to decide which social classes are allowed into which university. Now Gordon Brown has proposed in his Budget that the State should take over from parents the responsibility for child development, not just at the age of 5 but in the first few months of a baby�s life.

But what is the Tories� response to all this? To whinge about immigrants and gypsies. The clearest evidence of the Tories� ideological capitulation is their decision exactly to match Labour�s plans for public spending on health and education � and even to trump Mr Blair with promises of a higher basic state pension and total abolition of university top-up fees and student loans.