The Independent Safeguarding Authority to register all voluntary workers

I find the argument somewhat implausible, though, that New Labour had good intentions, but simply didn’t think through the consequences of their own actions.

Two features of New Labour thinking are clearly embedded in these regulations. First, the policy of spin; i.e. the need to be seen to doing something to appease society in the short term rather than actually achieving practical outcomes for the long term. Second, we can see their policy of bureaucratic control; i.e. the desire to have the whole population under surveillance and on data bases.

Where New Labour probably miscalculated was in underestimating the degree of common sense opposition from ordinary people who have their private community life damaged by this kind of legislation.