Anti-social services

Government intervention is always frustrating, but when it inflicts direct damage on people's lives, it is an altogether more serious and contemptible matter. Yet, this is happening on a regular basis to British families. We learn today of the Williams family of Newport, whose family was ripped apart by social services for no good reason.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. As Danny Finkelstein has highlighted, Camilla Cavendish of The Times is fighting an honourable battle to expose the large number of occasions when travesties of justice such as this are inflicted on innocent people by representatives of government. But she admits it is an uphill battle, as she is so often prevented by the law from reporting on abuses of the law.

The local government officials chose to believe the bad advice of a doctor acting outside of their area of expertise against the interests of the family. If we give them the money and power, they will carry on doing this. We can pray for civil servants with perfect judgment as much as we like - it ain't going to happen. They are just as imperfect as the rest of us, and always will be. We shouldn't blame them for being human. We just shouldn't let them act as judge and jury over other people's lives.