These days, it seems to me that everyone has a personal
strapline or slogan. I think it has something to do with the global rash of
self-styled social media influencers.
Up to this point, I’ve avoided such a luxury. But no longer.
In light of the ever-tightening bullying of state
institutions, desperate to justify their massive taxpayer-funded powers, I feel
the need for a motto.
I would have used Atlas Shrugged, named after the book by
the great Ayn Rand, libertarian extraordinaire. But I’m not sure if everyone
would get the classical reference.
So instead, I’ve gone for alliteration: Ban the Banners!
And by banners, I don’t mean those big promotional hoardings
or poorly crafted artwork carried by gobby, demonstrating lefties when they
seek to intimidate Jewish citizens. No, I mean those politicians and state
bureaucrats who seek to take away what remains of our rights to exercise choice
as adults for personal good or ill.
There is nothing more these people want than a compliant
country of neutered zombies unable to have control over their own lives – the
easier to manipulate them for whatever the state wants to do with and to them.
The rate at which national and local government is seizing
responsibilities, which for previous generations were self-evidently best
exercised at the personal or household level, really stepped up during the
Covid19 pandemic.
You may recall that was the period of time when various
police forces fined people for allegedly breaking the two-metre rule whilst
walking together in the open air for goodness sake, and when there was a
debate, straight out of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, as to whether a
Scotch Egg counted as a meal or not!
Since then the emboldened state has gone into overdrive. In
the last few weeks alone, there have been efforts to ban everything from
sweeties, to mobile phones in schools, and to the bureaucrats’ long-term enemy,
fags.
These ongoing putsches against personal choice have been
made easier by the white flags being flown at every opportunity by the
Conservative establishment. Once the party of choice and responsibility, it is
now led by a cabal of well-heeled bullies centred around the current Prime
Minister.
Since he was appointed – he was not elected, remember - to
his current role, this silly man’s virtue-signalling has emboldened every crank
with a cause.
One particular victim, whose plight caught my attention was
Kevin Hilliard, who has run a pick ’n mix stall in Saxmundham for over 20
years. His pitch license was withdrawn by power crazed town councillors
because, apparently, his brightly coloured bon bons and foam sweets presented
an existential threat to civilization. Or perhaps it was because his day-glo
offer didn’t align with their desire to create a ‘healthy’ market, whatever
that is.
After an outcry, the ban was reversed, but the threat
remains in the longer-term. Surely, it is up to customers – the free market -
to decide whether they buy Mr Hilliard’s gobstoppers or not, and not petty
politicians with agendas?
Trusting parents to make sensible choices is also something
seemingly off the agenda. New Government guidelines have been published which
seek to ban the use by pupils of mobile phones in school, even during breaks.
The Department for Education suggest that this is “to
minimise disruption and improve behaviour in classrooms.” Interestingly, there
is no mention of the role of teachers in this regard!
Surely, though, it is up to parents – in consultation with
their children’s schools - to agree the best way ahead. Most parents would
recognise that it is distracting to use phones in class. But it might be a
different matter during breaks, or to check their online timetable or
coursework status?
My grandson was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes earlier this
year, and in order for his parents to be alerted to any peaks & troughs in
his blood sugar levels, he has to have his own
smartphone on or near him all the time. An absolute ban just won’t work
for all.
So, onto fags. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d rather that my
grandchildren did not smoke when they are older. But then, I also hope that
they don’t do many questionable things as they grow older, including take up
extreme sports, seek employment with Putin-supporting mercenaries, or vote
Liberal Democrat!
But it’s not for me to take away their rights as adults to
make their own minds up, based on the evidence available to them. Sunak’s
Tobacco and Vapes Bill will do just that.
As an article in the Spectator articulated the matter well:
“adults should have the right to make personal choices about how they live
their lives. Smokers will die younger on average, but this is a risk they are
informed about on every cigarette packet. Since the ban on smoking in indoor
public places was implemented, that risk has largely become a private choice,
and personal lifestyle choices are not the government’s concern.”
Smokers are often stereotyped as low-information numpties.
If only they could be made to see sense, they’d stop, wail the banners!
I’m writing this on the day that researchers from UCL
examining data from nearly 200,000 adult participants in the Smoking Toolkit
Study, concluded that the number of younger middle-class women who smoke had
jumped 25% over the past ten years.
An interview on Radio 4 the same day with a woman who had
taken up smoking in her 40s, showed that it was a conscious decision by her to
have a cigarette now and then to help her relax.
The Banners must hate her. Time to ban them!
First Published in the www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk on Thursday 2nd May, 2024.
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