Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure.

Every emergency arrives with a promise attached: this is just for now. Just until things settle. Just until the crisis passes.

The crisis never quite passes. It simply finds a new costume. And the measure, having been introduced for our protection, stays on long after everyone has forgotten what it was protecting us from.

I am old enough to have heard “temporary” used about a great many things. I have yet to attend the funeral of a single one of them.