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This paper addresses a paradox. Bureaucracy, I argue, can be viewed as an ideological construct mobilised in both in the anti-statist rhetoric of neoliberalism, and in discourses of the 'progressive' left. But it is also integral to a range of contemporary calls for the regulation of corporate power, public action and personal conduct. Does left/progressive politics, then, mean rescuing bureaucracy in a reimagined polity capable of protecting citizens from harm and restoring notions of the state as a guarantor of public rights and justice? Or are left-inclined movements right to critique bureaucratic institutions and search for alternative organisational forms more capable of engaging or even 'empowering' citizens? The paper traces the slips and slides between negative representations of bureaucracy, regulation and the state itself, and asks how far emerging work can offer counter-narratives that serve to reimagine or reclaim them for 'progressive' purposes.

\"The most vulnerable people who go missing are in care,\" said Janet Newman, one of the co-founders in 1992 with her sister, Mary Asprey, of the National Missing Persons Helpline (NMPH). About a third of all children in care will at some stage go missing, with girls between 13 and 17 the highest proportion. While, understandably, the greatest publicity is given to runaway children, there is also a growing number of young men for whom life has become too problematic at home and who slip quietly away, often never to be seen again. While the NMPH, which has a staff of 55 with 150 volunteers in East Sheen in south London, has a relationship with the police, it makes it clear to callers that it will not pass on information to the police if the caller does not want it to. Some people do not want to be traced. \"We had one university lecturer who said 'how dare you look for me',\" said Mary Asprey. \"He was going to sue us.\" The NMPH does not pass on any information about a missing person's whereabouts without permission. \"DNA has changed everything,\" said Sophie Woodforde, spokeswoman for NMPH. \"The body of someone who went missing in 1986 can now be identified through a pen they chewed nearly 20 years ago. DNA used to cost thousands but now it can be done for a few hundred.\" Even if the DNA brings confirmation that a missing person is dead, it can comfort the family. \"The worst part for the family is not knowing.\"

'The boy was also hit on the bottom with a belt after his trousers were pulled down and if he cried was told to shut up and would be hit again if he cried,' she saidOwen Edwards, 47, of Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, pleaded not guilty to nine charges of child cruelty between March 1992 and September 1999 at Stafford Crown Court.

A BLACK Country father whipped his two young sons with lengths of flex, punched them, beat them with sticks and taped up their mouths to stop them screaming, a court heard. Janet Newman, prosecuting, claimed the alleged offences were committed over a period of seven- and-a-half years during which time one of the boys was hit on the face with the buckle of a belt leaving him scarred for life'The boy was also hit on the bottom with a belt after his trousers were pulled down and if he cried was told to shut up and would be hit again,' she said.

All of these feelings are familiar to Janet Newman and Mary Asprey, sisters and co-founders of the National Missing Persons Helpline, a charity that searches for people who suddenly disappear, and supports the families that are left behind. It also operates a message line for people who have run away and want their families to know that they are safe. Started in the wake of the disappearance of the estate agent Suzy Lamplugh (the sisters worked for the Lamplugh Trust before setting up the charity) and run initially from their living room, this will be the women's tenth Christmas spent picking up the pieces in the aftermath of unmanaged stress. More than a quarter of a million people are reported missing in Britain every year and unless someone is classed as \"vulnerable\" (under 18 or mentally unstable), there is little the police will do. This makes the work of Newman and Asprey - and the 30 paid and 60 volunteer staff who now work with them - doubly important, especially at this time of year. Like the Samaritans, which is expecting 10 per cent more calls in the period between Christmas and New Year (that's three calls a minute), NMPH sees a substantial rise in new cases over the holiday period. Of course, men aren't the only people who go missing. The key categories at this time of year, according to NMPH, also include older people suffering from Alzheimer's and teenagers - in this second group girls outnumber boys two to one (\"at that age girls are more unstable,\" says Newman). Common reasons include abuse, debt, depression, amnesia and abduction. NMPH is particularly concerned at the moment about children aged 15-17 who run away from local authority care, and potentially \"drop off the edge\", with no one conscious even of their existence. Children who are missing for more than a week have a 44 per cent chance of being hurt while on the run, and nearly two-thirds of those who stay with someone they have just met are injured.

Every year more than 200,000 people go missing. The charity works with police on 150,000 cases to solve 70 per cent. The Mirror regularly publishes its appeals. The National Missing Persons Helpline was launched in 1992 after sisters Janet Newman and Mary Asprey became involved with the search for missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh. \"It's also ironic that, during a time when the public and Government have been so generous in giving to foreign aid agencies in the wake of the tsunami disaster, the only national charity helping the families of people missing in the UK is facing extinction.\"

Then and now, it was easier for [Derek Hicks] to talk to me. Neighbours and friends tend to appropriate blame. Derek and I would talk about other things, anything that would give some clues. Sadly, we drew a blank. There was nothing to give any indication as to why [Kevin] would go missing, and all I could do was keep supporting the family. The police put us in touch with the National Missing Persons Helpline and [Janet Newman] became our caseworker. She was a godsend. Other people would think you had done something wrong. Not Janet. When someone goes missing, you feel numb, you can't grieve properly because there's no body. Janet was someone to bounce ideas off and she'd make you feel you were contributing, whereas most of the time you'd feel helpless. Sometimes I'd think I could cope better if he'd been killed, or phoned and said he didn't want any contact. Not knowing is hard: you can't move on and you feel guilty for not thinking about him.

\"No other method for protein analysis can give such detailed information about protein structure. Whilst in the past protein crystal growth has been difficult and labour intensive, Australia now has a fantastic new research facility which brings automation and computer-aided decision making into the process. Additionally the Centre will be an important feeder for the Australian Synchrotron when it begins operation in 2007.\" \"This Centre is yet another example of how the Bio21 cluster model can work to create a virtual facility which encourages interactive research and the cross-fertilisation of ideas,\" Dr [Stella Clark] said. ((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http:// www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)).

\"I remember being told that we would never get to see my mother again,\" said Ms. [Tracy Parsons], now 30 and living in Murfreesboro, Tenn. \"I remember bursting into tears and crying inconsolably.\" \"There are times in my life when it hits harder than others,\" she said. \"It has been 24 years, and it's much easier to deal with, but it's never gone.\" \"She didn't fight back, and that leads you to believe it was someone she knew,\" Ms. Parsons said. \"That's even worse, because if they knew her, they probably knew us, and you wonder why they would do that to her. Why would they do that to us?\" \"At times I really wanted to know why that person thought my mother's life was not worth living,\" Ms. Parsons said. \"Now, as I have gotten older, there is a part that wants to know why, but another part is almost afraid to know who.\"