Rehabilitate the state?

Sometimes Roy Hattersley has some astute things to say. Here's one of 'em.

The time has come for "the state" to be rehabilitated. And that has to begin with the acceptance that when things go wrong, even the most passionate opponents of "big government" complain that the government is not big enough and should be doing more.
When a child dies of neglect or abuse, the local authority is accused of incompetence and negligence; if there is an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, claims about inadequate precautions are heard; former employees of companies which have collapsed during the recession demand to know why more has not been done to save their jobs. Those complaints are admissions that the state is, or ought to be, all of us working collectively for the common good.

Rehabilitate the state | Roy Hattersley | Comment is free | The Guardian