Tuesday 17 September 2024

Another day, another ban

On the morning after the General Election result I posted this tweet, which I really should frame, as I fear it will become only too prophetic.


The previous government did not have a good record on issues of lifestyle restriction, but it seems as though, as I expected, their replacements are greatly quickening the pace. It seems that hardly a day goes by without some further ban or curb being proposed. First we had the plan to outlaw smoking in pub gardens, and last week we saw both a proposal to ban “junk food” advertising on TV before 9 pm – and entirely on social media – and to prevent pubs using glasses bearing the logos of beer brands.

These are both issues on which I have commented before, and I don’t really propose to waste my breath going over the same ground again and again. The “junk food” advertising ban will inevitably encompass many foods generally regarded as “healthy”, while the alcohol logo ban is part of a much wider plan to restrict alcohol marketing and publicity.

Some of the thinking behind this plans is exposed in this extract from a report recently quoted in this tweet by Christopher Snowdon:

Rather than being welcomed as valued partners in the national enterprise, the alcohol industry and much of the food industry will be branded as “Unhealthy Commodity Industries” which are seen as a pernicious influence on public life. They will be at best grudgingly tolerated and excluded from any voice in policy-making. Huge swathes of the economy, also extending to sectors such as tobacco, gambling, car manufacture, oil and much of travel, will be condemned as essentially undesirable. The Scotch whisky industry, who are often celebrated as Scotland’s biggest export earner, cannot be remotely happy with this framing. And pubs, as retailers of alcohol, will inevitably be lumped in as well.

You have to wonder what motivates people to take this joyless and restrictive approach. Are they completely unable to appreciate the pleasures that can be gained from consuming alcoholic drinks or food, let alone enjoying these activities in convivial company? As H. L. Mencken famously said, “A Puritan is someone who lives in mortal fear that somewhere, sometime, someone is enjoying himself.” It is worth reproducing in full this well-known quote from C. S. Lewis, which is usually only seen in abbreviated form:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
The final sentence is particularly important, as it underlines how this approach is essentially infantilising people rather than treating them as responsible adults who can be trusted to take charge of their own lives.

18 comments:

  1. "You have to wonder what motivates people to take this joyless and restrictive approach"... Yes, I have often wondered why left-wing people are like they are. Lately the concept of the "Spiteful Mutant" has arisen. This is a person who, due to genetics, does not fit in with his peers, and so seeks to harm them and "get his own back", sometimes to the extent of collaborating with outsiders against his own people. This does chime with my experiences of lefties over the years; two-tier Keir is a prime example. Read all about it:

    https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/159368083X/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_top?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do they realise that water killed over 630 people in UK in 2020. And each year it gets worse.
    Something must be done about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Labour MP booed out of pub. It turns my stomach to see a woman being treated like this - but Labour has only itself to blame.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxPUNtmJGQA

    ReplyDelete
  4. I doubt banning branded beer and cider glasses will achieve anything other than banning a non existent problem.
    Oscar

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think having a 2/3rds of a pint measure in addition to the glass (half pint) and full pint as an option is a good idea.

    As for more drink free events more drink optional events would be better, oh wait they exist. You do not need to drink on freshers week etc if you do not want to. Anyone using peer pressure to drink is being an arse.
    Oscar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 2/3 measures were legalised in the early 2010s, but outside craft bars the take-up has been very limited. And, as I said on Twitter, if they stopped serving pints, people would just ask for two halves.

      Delete
    2. Two halves in this pint tankard which I just happen to be carrying :-)

      Delete
  6. Drinkings about to be as verboten as smoking.
    The CAMRAs are like those posho cigar clubs that thought they'd be exempt from the plebs smoking ban.

    A CAMRA beer festival glass is as branded as those nicely knickable Leffe glasses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, you have a Marxist running CAMRA and a Trot running the government so...

      Delete
  7. Kier has got himself up and running with the lifestyle bans quicker than anyone expected.

    The last lot got what they deserved for running the country down but LOL at the all the beer geeks that cheered this lot.

    Pubs will be over by the time Kier gets kicked into touch. Drinking will have the same status as smoking and something you do privately at home at great expense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you have the absurd sight of CAMRA and the BBPA listing the things Reeves needs to do to "save the pub", when in reality the only question mark is how hard they will get shafted. Labour have no interest in the continued existence of pubs, let alone their success.

      Delete
  8. I suppose one consolation is that, less than three months after taking office, Labour have become mired in a swamp of sleaze, so the chances of them actually implementing any of this crap must be diminishing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The last Government gave the Department for Work and Pensions the power to require banks to monitor the accounts of every person who receives benefit payments including the state pension. A thousand payments of about £4 to public houses each year isn't going to go unnoticed for long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Which is a very good reason to use cash so your purchases can't be linked to you.

      Delete
    2. Yes indeed, that's partly why I always pay with proper money.
      Next the Government might monitor the use of our bus passes, several hours often spent in a town known for its pubs being suspicious behaviour to them.
      Not 1984 or 2024 but maybe 2034.

      Delete
  10. As a niche 2/3rds of a pint are good for the stronger beers over 6 percent.
    Oscar

    ReplyDelete

Comments, especially on older posts, may require prior approval by the blog owner. See here for details of my comment policy.

Please register an account to comment. Unregistered comments will generally be rejected unless I recognise the author. If you want to comment using an unregistered ID, you will need to tell me something about yourself.