This article is based on a Lecture delivered at King’s College London on 15 November 2012 on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the EStAL journal. Thus, rather than as a learned publication, it was conceived as a means of stimulating a critical reappraisal of the scope, substance and procedural aspects of the EU’s State aid rules as currently operated. While recognising the continuing need for some EU control of State aid, the Lecture puts State aid into perspective a