Slim bodies, for example. Shortly after his Munich speech, Mr Cameron got food suppliers to sign a "responsibility deal". Among other things, this will require them to redesign their products so that they contain fewer calories. Fattening food will not be illegal but food suppliers who want to keep in Mr Cameron's good books know what to do. 

Mr Cameron also values banks that lend to small British firms, pay even more tax than the law requires and give small bonuses to their staff. So the Chancellor has done a "deal" with the banks whereby they promise to do these things. The law does not require lending to small British firms. Nevertheless, banks that want to be part of the "partnership between government and business" saw the wisdom of obliging Mr Osborne. 

Nor is it only banks that Mr Osborne thinks should pay more tax than the law requires. Last December he commissioned Graham Aaronson QC to draft a "general anti-avoidance rule". This will allow government officials to decide whether the amount of tax you have paid, though strictly all that the law requires, is nevertheless too little and that you must pay some more. 

Under David Cameron's "muscular liberalism", the distinction between what is the government's business and what is private citizens' business is to be dissolved. The law will no longer tell us what we may do without fear of government muscle.