On government

Referendums are, of course, political oddities. They give an added layer of legitimacy to a government decision for which a general election mandate might seem inadequate.

Simon Jenkins, Guardian, 27 June


I have neither the time not the inclination to do the necessary research to come to an informed decision on this matter, which is why I employ others (ie the government) to do it for me.

Guardian, CiF, 27 June


"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else," wrote the French political philosopher, journalist and politician Frédéric Bastiat (1801–50).