Sir, author S. Hudson in his interesting opinion paper A fistful of UDAs (BDJ 2007; 203: 71–73) is effectively presenting our current exposure to Gammon's Law of Bureaucratic Displacement, a development from Parkinson's Law, which Milton Freedman acknowledged and used.

Dr Max Gammon (still very much alive) formulated his law some time ago and it has been widely used stating as it does that: 'In a bureaucratic system, increase in expenditure will be matched by fall in production'.