I think I would simply remind you that this is but one tiny aspect of the whole disease which impedes every part of the productive sector. At all levels, the government interferes with our businesses to make it increasing impossible to get anything done. And then when something goes wrong, your fault or not, the regulators are there to come down upon you like the proverbial tonne of bricks. The answer is to make a huge bonfire of quangos and regulations and save the taxpayer money, say about 10% of GDP. But then you know all about this……….

That would at least be consistent with the New Labour mode of operation.

Perhaps Gordon Brown will set up a review of the issues inviting **insert the name of the person and organisation who's credibility he is borrowing here and he can hide behind** to undertake a wide ranging study, saying that he does not want to prejudge the review of inaction.

Fines for motorists have increased exponentially, are the roads any safer? of course not. All fines imposed by the state from late tax returns to recalcitrant utitlity companies should be ringfenced in a special fund. This should then be used to subsidise various activities (not of the pious, social engineering, Millenium Dome variety) that everyone can enjoy. I guarantee the government would then lose its appetite for this lazy management device in a nanosecond.

I think a super correction mechanism would be if the fines imposed were always forced to be paid to the injured party (usually Joe public) and not to the Treasury.

As it stands a 'fine' just goes to the Treasury. If your rail service is a joke then the fine benefits you precisely nothing. It helps Alisatair Darling. It's stealth tax.

If the fine was obliged to be paid equally to all season ticket holders then the voting public would feel directly that the regulators were on their side.

Maybe you'd like to sponsor a private bill through the House!

It seems we, as a nation, have become obsessed with fines. Every piece of legislation seems to have a fine attached. On our local news channel last night, we saw two features, one about seat belts and one about mobile phones. The bottom line was that, two or three police officers were at the side of the road basically collecting fines at the rate of thirty pounds a go. We see in the local paper that several police officers were at the side of a road in Bracknell collecting speeding fines at the rate of forty pounds a throw. Whilst it is true to say that speeding, non wearing of seat belts and using mobile phones while driving are against the law, why does it seem the police constantly target this type of tax collecting crime rather than investigating the type of crimes, such as burglary and muggings, that we all fear more? Could it be that money is not so easily raised? Anyone that has been burgled knows that often the police don't even turn up; you are just given a crime report number to give to your insurers.

With regard to the regulators, I agree that it is sheer madness to have one publicly funded body fining another publicly funded body….So why do we as a nation put up with it? Are we all stupid?

The "event" that really rammed it home for me was the shooting at Stockwell tube. The publicly funded police were investigated by the publicly funded 'Elf'n'safety quango, these reported to the publicly funded CPS who prosecuted the publicly funded Met Police through the publicly funded court system who then issued a fine….Kerching…There goes Nanny's till again….How much money and at what cost to the taxpayer is swilling around and around within our Stalinist state in the public sector in fines, awards and funding?
The problem is that whenever a member of the Stepford front bench announce a record fine, they look so pleased with themselves, are we too thick to see that actually we are fining ourselves which, in the case of a fined NHS trust hospital, must come off the hospital's budget and thus affect front line services I.e. Money to treat you and I in hospitals.

I feel the EUSSR were wrong to fine Microsoft, they were merely protecting their product….They are successful because they provide something the public want….Obviously, success is unacceptable in a Stalinist state. It seems that often a regulator saying, “They can easily afford it”, justifies the hefty fines It is another tax on success. Before the current fine them culture came in to fashion, the preferred method of a Labour government was the “Windfall” tax. Same thing really; just a different label.

I personally think, this fine them culture is just the natural progression from the compensation culture….Are we too thick to see that every time we sue for compensation, the lawyers make a fortune, the insurers have huge costs, mostly legal fees, and these are passed on to we the customers in the form of huge premiums….When we receive our couple of quid compensation do we think that we have really won? The winners are the lawyers, they have probably made ten times as much in fees, we are the losers as we will pay higher and higher premiums, the insurers will just pass this new expense on to us.