The state we’re in

Just to recommend the FT’s analysis of the size of the British state to CoffeeHousers.  Click through their slides, and you’ll get plenty of digestable facts and graphs about public spending, the size of the public sector and, ahem, the MoD’s 21 concrete mixers.  Who knew, for instance, that of the 30 children in an average primary school classroom “more than two” will have a parent who works in the NHS?  In an ideal, transparent world, the Treasury would provide straightforward statistical resources like this.