Writing in a Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet, Lawson said, "Over the past ten years both the burden and the complexity have greatly increased – the latter mind-bogglingly so. This process badly needs to be reversed.”

This site has run a plethora of stories on new legislation (see previous stories in Knowledgebase, Legislation or search ‘Red tape’). The stories indicate a backlash against the legislation and two trends are emerging.

At the smaller end of the business scale owners are moving toward one-man-band type operations where people chose to work in a network of associates sharing business opportunities and sub-contracting the bits that are outside their expertise. At the top end of the spectrum a few larger companies are contemplating moving out of the UK to countries such as Ireland where taxes are very much less and the regulations are easier to accommodate.