Summary

Have you ever thrown your arms up in despair while trying to fill in an official form and asked yourself "Just what is the point of this?" You are not the only one.

Have you ever thrown your arms up in despair while trying to fill in an official form and asked yourself "Just what is the point of this?" You are not the only one. Red tape in Britain has reached epidemic proportions. In just 12 months the Government produced a shocking 3621 pieces of legislation, running to a total of 98,600 pages. That is 13 times as long as War and Peace. If it wasn't so serious it would be quite funny. In this volume Ross Clark exposes some of the most petty and bizarre rules and regulations which are blighting the lives of Britons today. Among his discoveries are: - That there are 279 different tax forms for businesses alone, asking a total of 6614 questions - The notes explaining the Treasury's 'simpilified' pensions' regime ran to 1369 pages - One Police force discovered that it had a total of 1150 different forms on which to report crimes - There are 1300 pages of road traffic law - and that does not even include the law preventing petrol stations selling hot food after 11pm unless they apply for a licence - A council spent #5000 planting yew trees to screen a new children's play area. It then dug them up again after health and safety experts advised children could fall ill if they gobbled 'several handfuls' of leaves