The Zeeman Lecture at the September 2021 Conference on 'Rethinking Regulation' was delivered by Ed Humpherson -Director General for Regulation, UK Statistics Authority. This is a transcript of that lecture. A couple of years ago, back when it was possible to travel freely without worrying about masks, infections and tests, I was on a train journey south from Edinburgh. As is the way with long train journeys in the UK, there was some horrendous disruption; and as is also the way, this disruption broke the invisible veil that holds British people back from talking to one another, and lots of conversations started – proceeding from the usual starting point of “bloody typical” to broader chats – where are you going, what do you do?