DEMOcracy v AUTOcracy

[Martin Cassini]

In his Mansion House speech last night, the Foreign Secretary called for funding to help emerging democracies in North Africa avoid a reversion to autocracy. It’s not too far-fetched to see a parallel with roads. Britain is known for its democratic freedoms, yet roads are subject to autocratic control. If you arrive at a junction and can see it’s clear, are you free to go? Not if there’s a red light. How many traffic lights are there in the UK? About 45,000, operating day and night, 365 days a year. That’s a lot of individual choice overruled by authoritarian control.