Health Fascism

Sir Liam Donaldson is, of course, the crazed fascist who stopped smoking in public places, abandoning all science to tell us that passive smoking - all passive smoking, even if there is a ventilator and you are leaning out of the window - was dangerous, while at the same time pretending to be a scientist. This outrage has had little or no effect on the public health but has virtually closed the pubs down, thus wrecking a very British way of life which has subsisted for centuries. Donaldson, you see, didn't like the idea of you smoking.

Now he is on to alcohol. Many people warned alcohol would be next. He wants to double the price with a minimum per 'unit'. Interestingly both he and his colleague in Scotland, which is making the running on this particular piece of nanny stating, admit that in Mediterranean countries alcohol costs a lot less and yet there is a lower incidence of drunkenness and of liver disease. They may even accept that in Scandiavian countries alcohol costs more than in Britain but the incidence of alcoholism is greater. Facts won't stop these bogus scientists. They want to stop you behaving in a way they disapprove of. The only reason Donaldson isn't getting his way now is that there is an election coming up and even Gordon Brown, not normally a chap to worry himself about what might affect the ordinary man, can see it isn't exactly a vote winner. In fact, like his removal of the 10p tax band it would penalise the poor. Chateau Lafite has the same alcohol content as cheap Argentinian Malbec, Lowenbrau the same as Fosters.

Sinisterly, Donaldson says he is in this for the long term and feels that, like the smoking ban, he will get his way in the end.

It doesn't affect me because I shall live out my days with decent wine at around €1 a litre, plonk a bit less, but I really do think that these people need to be exposed - 'scientists' who don't let evidence get in the way of their opinions - and that the State should be firmly told the limits of its power.

Otherwise what's to come of Britain?