The rest of us have begun in a quiet way to take the regulators' freedom for granted

The rest of us have begun, in a quiet way, to take the regulators' freedom for granted. Yet, if we stand back for a moment, and consider their brief history, this power is a remarkable thing. Regulation and bureaucracy were what Mrs Thatcher pledged herself to cutting. It was not that long ago Lord Young of Graffham was setting up a Deregulation Unit to produce White Papers with long lists of rules to be rescinded. In fact, when it came to it, people were found to be rather keen on health and safety at work.

Even staunch Conservative voters were unenthusiastic about repealing the rules on development control and land use. (In a contest between ideological deregulators and Nimbys, the latter always win hands down.)Today's regulators represent a further step - the return of powerful and popular bureaucrats. Why did the Conservatives tolerate this? Simply because, having privatised some of the most politically sensitive services, without properly breaking up the resulting monopolies, they were scared stiff of what companies and voters would say if they felt cheated or abused.So far, an interesting lesson in the political limitations of radical Toryism. But the shape of the regulatory offices looks odder still when we consider how personal and discretionary they are. This is against the ideology of the past 17 years in a serious way.

For instance, Friedrich Hayek was one of Lady Thatcher's gurus. He was a root and branch antagonist of giving officials a lot of personal discretion - that really was, he argued, the road to serfdom. Yet here we have Ms Spottiswoode in gas, Professor Littlechild in electricity, Mr Byatt in water and Mr Cruickshank in telecoms making individual and sometimes idiosyncratic judgements about price levels, competition and industrial structure - all very important political questions.For democrats, the regulatory offices leave much to be desired. Notionally accountable to Parliament, the regulators have only to produce an annual report and turn up, if they care to, in response to select committee requests They are effectively immune from Parliamentary scrutiny.

Their judgements are, it is true, subject to inspection by the courts in judicial review and by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. But all the courts can do is determine that their personal judgements were exercised after due care and deliberation. As for the MMC, it too is an odd animal - a quango made up of political appointees which is supposed to be fair and independent. As for the regulators' relations with ministers and Whitehall, well, they ought to be prickly and suspicious.