Am I alone in feeling fed up with being told how I should live my life; not content with taking a large proportion of my money in taxes, again and again I hear of some new government initiative or European directive telling me how I should live! Not content with telling all of us we can't smoke and that we mustn't be too fat, there is a whole host of rules and regulations, many seemingly quite ridiculous to any sane person, designed to protect us from ourselves as we go about our daily business. I dread the weekly announcements on the ‘Today’ programme of the latest 'raft' or 'suite' of measures, no moment of our lives seems to be safe from someone else telling us what to do with it. For those of us who manage to survive all this interference there is alas not even the thought of peace at the last, for if a recent initiative comes into effect, voluntary organ donation may become a thing of the past, demonstrating perhaps the state's desire not only to dominate our lives but death too!

As you may guess I have never liked being told what to do, certainly not if that means losing my right to personal freedom and choice. I was therefore heartened to read of a new government initiative- the risk and regulation advisory Council, set up to protect us from the interfering cotton wool approach of an over zealous nanny state- once more I may be allowed to play ‘Conkers’ without wearing goggles and discover that hot water is hot without labels to tell me!

Of course we need the state and government to safe guard the well being of society and individuals, after all the state came into being as a 17th century ideal to safeguard us against what the philosophers described as 'mankind's depravity.' We need the state to save us from ourselves! However there needs to be a balance, do we really want a monster, like Hobbe’s Leviathan, that swallows everything and everyone into one harmonious whole, whether we like it or not? If I have to have a nanny I'd rather have God, he's more like that old fashioned nanny who sets us rules to live by but at the same time gives us enough freedom to be a bit adventurous and make decisions for ourselves. More Mary Poppins than jack booted commissar. He’s set the rules from the 10 commandments onwards but he wants us to make choices and decisions for ourselves, that's what being human is all about. 'Life’s a toss up,' someone remarked to me recently, and yes we never know what's around the corner, but like good old nanny God is always there with that metaphorical bandage or plaster or what ever we need, showing a love and concern for us that is unconditional and never ends.

Surely that's what Easter is all about, God loves us so much he sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to show us that all the daily knock backs, the suffering and pain even death itself is not all that there is, he is with us always. Now I think I might go and dance among the chimney pots!