Jonathan Freedland is barking

In his column in today's Grauniad Jonathan Freedland describes a scheme in Kent which

found a group of women who walked their dogs after the school run. Kent spent public money providing the group with a trainer, so they would walk faster.

Freedland's piece is actually a largely sensible call for public services to be locally controlled and make more use of the voluntary sector. But the idea that the state should decide the speed at which people walk their dogs is ridiculous, whether you are talking about national or local government.