SBP editorial: State must practise what it preaches on public services cards

The relationship between a state and its citizens is a complex, subtle and slowly evolving one. But the concept of the social contract, as explored by philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, remains the essential pillar of most western democracies to this day.

That contract on one level is simple: citizens give up certain rights and consent to the authority of the state in exchange for protection and an ordered society. But in order ...