The Nanny State Made Me

Stuart Maconie looks into the ‘Nanny State'. This is the derogatory term used for public or nationalised services by people with in power. Or, as Maconie says “people who had nannies”. Maconie looks back with rose-tinted glasses to a life led under the glory days of state intervention. However, Maconie becomes too misty-eyed to keep a focus. Topics are wide ranging, and only touched upon. It's also relentlessly negative. Chapter after chapter of invective becomes tiresome. His praise of society under the auspices of government funding leads to a highly personal and polemical book. Clinging to a romanticised past for the majority of the book it's only in the last chapter that Maconie touches on the real problem. This is the growing social and political emphasis on individuality and identity. He has a point, albeit made far too late.