NHS. First, it is likely to boost hospital activity, which is vital if the government is to meet its new target for cutting the maximum all-in waiting time for an elective operation to 18 weeks by 2008.

ECONOMIST: A new payment system in the NHS: innovative, but risky

The 56-year-old, now a director at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute, believes the recruitment of members of President Assad's regime into the government which replaces it could be vital in avoiding the kind of insurgency activity which dogged Iraq after the 2003 conflict.

BBC: Professor Sir Paul Newton

The discovery of quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity, vital to much of modern technology and economic activity, including the transistor, the laser and the atomic bomb.

ECONOMIST: Letters

They found that people with symptoms of dyslexia showed less neural activity in parts of the brain that are vital to reading (in the temporal lobe).

BBC: Scientists find cause of dyslexia

But sometimes this can become displacement activity to avoid tackling that most tricky and most vital of political tasks - earning the right to be heard.

BBC: Landale online: Time for Ed Miliband to reach out

Announcing the stepping up in use of the powers, Commander Rod Jarman said it would be a vital tactic to help it "disrupt, deter and prevent terrorist activity".

BBC: NEWS | UK | England | London | Rise in terror stop-and-searches

This not only regulated activity in a tightly planned economy, but was also a vital link in the chain of social control.

ECONOMIST: China: Could do better | The

"Construction activity generally, general construction, civil engineering and housing, have a vital, dynamic effect on getting an economy going, " he said.

BBC: Construction Employers Federation decry fall in NI jobs

They have seen the imposition of any measures designed to slow economic activity rather as they might look at a toxic-waste dump: vital for the greater good, to be sure, but better in someone else's backyard.

ECONOMIST: It's not easy to slow down the economy