IT'S a strange kind of limbo, this in-between time. Christmas feels as if it's over, but of course, there is still lots to come.

The lull will last all this week. And then a slumbering, bloated and Yuled-out nation will once again explode into life with the New Year's celebrations.

Christmas is growing more stressful every year. While there are still many firms that shut down for the duration, increasing numbers of workers find their stress levels going up as employers demand more and more.

Shop staff are particularly under the cosh at this time as stores seek to maximise their profits over two weeks of consumer frenzy.

And competing with this world of increasing workloads are the rigours of the party season.

There are enormous pressures to party night and day... and still be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for work next day.

There is also the higher risk of illness as germs proliferate in centrally-heated offices and factories.

It is a time of stark contrasts. On the one hand, there are stuffy and over-heated rooms but marrow-chilling cold outside.

Buildings are ablaze with light, shining like beacons in the bleak midwinter.

And this is why quite a few people succumb to illness. For some, the Christmas break can be involuntarily extended as the two ends of the celebrations are linked by sickness.

But there are a selfish few who will feign illness just to extend their break...

This month, it was announced that public sector workers will have their pay stopped if they do not produce a medical certificate after five days off sick.

It's all part of government plans to crack down on absenteeism.

A report from a ministerial task force also suggests that workers who take more than five separate absences in a year - single days or longer - should be given a disciplinary warning.

In addition, staff would have to phone in every day while sick.

Pilot studies have begun in the Inland Revenue, the Prison Service and the Department for Work and pensions.

Apparently, public sector workers take an average 10 days a year off sick, costing the taxpayer £4bn, compared with 7.8 days in the private sector. Lower-paid workers, women and part-time staff take the most sick leave, reflecting stressful and unrewarding jobs.

The most common reason for long-term absence is back pain or other muscular problems, and mental illness.

The report also points out that some staff, particularly women, take sick leave as carers or for family emergencies...

Not content with taxing us into oblivion, it would appear that our current Lords of Misrule have now developed an insatiable appetite for screwing down the entire population.

First they raid our pension funds like thieves in the night and then demand we all work until 70.

So it is hoped by wrecking pensions more people will be forced to work longer. They will then die sooner, meaning they won't have to claim much. Brilliant.

And with any luck, quite a few will croak while in the yoke.

Even better. Such individuals will have finished their task as completely cost-effective tax-yielding units. Next.

Now they are saying that even if we fall sick by the wayside for more than a few days, we will have to account for ourselves, guilty until proved innocent.

And don't forget all this is happening in a Britain with a long hours work culture, where people are already slaving away to pay mortgages and ever-higher taxes.

So tell, me, who are these paragons of virtue telling us how we should live our lives?

Why! Our rulers, that's who. You know the ones I mean. Look, look, there they go... trousers around their ankles, gravy-training, generally taking care of business and voting themselves fantastic fiscal futures.

They can be also easily identified by their luxuriant plumage, well-feathered nest and greedy feeding habits.

It should be noted, however, that they are a protected species.

I don't know about you, but I'm now sick and tired of these fantastically-paid individuals telling me how to run my life.

It's one thing to introduce identity cards - which are a tax on existence - but quite another to whittle away at the State support nearly all of us will need when too decrepit to soldier on.

Britain is becoming a feel-bad society, a nation of drudges waiting for the latest decree to be passed down from the great Westminster Hive. Parliament itself has become a huge, flightless grub that must be fed by millions of worker bees, demanding more and more from its drones.

What is it about New Labour's obsessions with rules and regulations?

Why is it so wedded to control? What has happened since 1997, when Tony Blair strutted his Martin Luther King routine in front of the nation's millions?

Most British workers are conscientious, thorough and loyal - if not to an employer, then to their colleagues, which is undoubtedly a much higher and worthy loyalty.

And from time to time, they will certainly fall ill and be obliged to take time off.

But that doesn't mean they are skiving.

Yes, a minority will be doing just that - but the majority should not be tarred with the same brush. Indeed, perhaps MPs might like to explain to their employers - us - the next time they take time off to be ill/go on a junket/have sex with someone else's spouse.

The problem I have with these people is their don't-do-as-I-do-do-as-I-say attitude.

It stinks of the Middle Ages, reminiscent of how life must have been like when dominated by an overweening Catholic Church, prying into every corner of existence.

From birth to death, the citizen is becoming packed tighter than a fly parcelled in the corner of a spider's web. More forms, more demands, more taxes, yet more forms... and if you don't do it right you'll be fined.

Make a mistake and there will be punishments. Then, while you're waiting for Britain's hopeless bureaucracy to sort it out, access to state benefits will be denied.

And when it comes back wrong, the process must start all over again. Ee - ain't life grand!

We live in hope that this tidal wave of nannying will, eventually, be stemmed by some future King Canute. Granted, it's hard to see how at the moment, but it's worth remembering that all bad things - like good - must come to an end at some stage.

In fact, it might be a good idea if we all make a New Year's resolution to hit back.

That is still left to us at the moment - although this too, is threatened by postal voting and all the Third World-style corruption that will inevitably bring.

Meanwhile, we might just be able to toddle along to the nearest polling station. Unless we're too ill, of course.

A happy New Year.