This line is put forward to scare people into accepting responsibility for their lives and making real choices. We hear nothing of this now Labour is in office. Welfare reform is a sham. The pensioners have to be fobbed off with special allowances, not decent pensions. They too cannot make real choices.
Secret government is often bad government.
But New Labour's freedom of information has hardly been noticed. In fact, the misnamed Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, it should be called the Extension of Investigatory Powers Act, reductions in trial by jury and the damp squib of the Freedom Of Information Act show what has really happened. Nor should we be surprised. Inherent in the Third Way is an inability to see where regulation is necessary or to preserve British traditions which serve us well. All the shallow gimmicks from electronic voting to citizen juries are proposed.