In the peculiar mixture of weird and impractical ideas from the extreme left and the extreme right that is New Labour, there is hardly a trace of the volunteer ethic. Instead, everything has a value and that value is expressed in money. As has long been the case in the USA, even a person’s value depends on how much they own and how much they earn.

Consequently, volunteer work is worthless and volunteers count for nothing. It would be interesting to see what would happen if everyone stopped doing unpaid work and demanded that the government take on the responsibility – without any increase in taxes, of course.