Friday 12 March 2010

Nanny Bashing

If you did read the entire commons debate I linked to yesterday, you would have spotted the one voice of sanity amongst the otherwise forlorn chorus.


Philip Davies MP doesn't need any comment from me, he puts our case perfectly. Here are extensive highlights of his contribution.

The report is certainly a useful contribution to the debate on addiction-not, unfortunately, on addiction to alcohol, but on this Government's and the Health Committee's addiction to the nanny state. They have already helped to dismantle the pub and club industry with their smoking ban. Pubs are closing at the rate of 50 a week-many because of the ban on smoking in public places-and the same fate is being felt by many clubs, such as working men's clubs. It seems that the Health Committee, not satisfied with dismantling the pub and club industry, now wishes to direct its fire in other areas, such as at cinemas and commercial broadcasters, to try to close down those industries. Many sports will also be adversely affected if its recommendations are introduced.

All that would not be so bad if I thought that, in the end, if after all the Committee's recommendations were introduced, its members would say that they were satisfied. The problem, however, as with all these matters, is that the report panders to the zealots in society who are never satisfied. I guarantee that if all the recommendations were introduced, Committee members would, within a few months at most, come back with further recommendations because the previous ones had not gone far enough. This lobby is impossible to satisfy.
Yes!

A great many people in the House seem to want to do nothing else but ban everyone from doing all the things that they themselves do not happen to like. I do not think that I was brought into politics for that. In fact, I am speaking today as a teetotaller: I do not even drink alcohol, but I very much defend the rights of those who do. People who want to enjoy drinking their alcohol responsibly should not have to pay extra on their supermarket shopping just because a few yobs cannot take their drink of an evening.
YES!

I know that we have other business to discuss today so I shall not detain the House any longer. I despair at the endless consensus that there seems to be in the House, which is forever seeking to restrict people's freedoms in this country, to try to stop them doing things that they do legitimately and, in the overwhelming majority of cases, without any problem. For hon. Members to lecture people constantly about what they may and may not do, and what they should and should not say, is depressing beyond belief. The report is more of the same-more of the nanny state.

I know for a fact that the moment the proposed measures are introduced, the zealots represented on the Select Committee will be back for more, and back for more again. They are never satisfied. Dr. Taylor said that he wanted the Government to go a little further and do a little more. Unfortunately, he and the people whom he represents always want the Government to go a little further and do a little more.
Wild applause.

I fear that despite the hon. Gentleman's moderate approach to alcohol, the arguments made by others that 40,000 people a year die from drinking alcohol mean that people want to ban that, too. They do not have the courage of their convictions, however, because they do not think that people in their local working men's clubs will tolerate being told that they cannot smoke or drink any more. It is not what they believe that affects what they say; what counts is whether they think that it will be acceptable to people in their local working men's clubs.

The hon. Gentleman has indicated that whatever measures are taken on any of those issues, the zealots will always want to come back for more; they will never, ever be satisfied. I therefore urge the Government to ignore those siren voices and base their decisions on evidence and the real world-and evidence and the real world alone.
And he nails the dismount.

We really need more MPs like this.

Considering he appears to mirror, word for word, the ethos of this blog, I'm installing him as the new Puddlecote parliamentary mascot.

Pic nicked from Tom Harris



17 comments:

The Filthy Smoker said...

Bugger me with a fish fork. A decent, honest MP who has some principles. Sir, I salute you.

lenko said...

I'm with the Hon Gentleman on this... I'm a smoker who hasn't had a fag for 4 years and a drinker who gets through a whole bottle of Bailey's every year. Shock gasp!

Its also nice to note that Mr Davies is the Commons spokesman for the Campaign against Political Correctness. Think I might join that.

Also, he's one of the few in the House who have actually done a day s proper work, having been both a cashier and a manager of a bookmakers.

Oh -- that'll be next. We're going to ban betting. It's for your own good. You see that, don't you?

PS: My word verification is pulatilt. Don't know what it means, but I definitely want to do it.

Fishter said...

Part of his speech was replayed on Today in Parliament last night on Radio 4.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r4t2y

Fredrik Eich said...

A faultless assessment of the health lobby's insatiable appetite for cultural vandalism - by a teetotal MP!!
Astonishing!

Yan said...

And, luckily, he's my MP...

Bald headed John said...

^^^^Lucky you.
Mine is Stoate. Bansturbating fuckwit. I'm going to have to shoot him. No really I am!!!

Neal Asher said...

Aaargh! But then you read the crap the others were coming out with! Do these fuckers realize that when they say X-number of people die of alcohol related diseases that the largest proportion of said statistic are people in their late sixties and beyond? That if something alcohol related (or smoking related) hadn't killed them, either something else would have or they'd be healthy drooling idiots in care homes? Fucking authoritarian cunts.

Anonymous said...

Gillian Merron NAZI !
Kevin Barron NAZI !
In the pay of whom ?

Anonymous said...

I would move house to vote for that man! at last one MP how calls it as it is.

Anonymous said...

A man with a great deal of common sense.
If only there were more like that.
Why do the others listen to the small minority of shreikers.

BTS said...

I think I've just developed some respect for an MP.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about that. It's just so.. different.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Lenko: Good for you. :-)

Fishter: Thanks for that link.

TFS & Fredrik: Quite a surprise, is it not?

Yan: Very lucky indeed

BHJ: Very UNlucky indeed

Neal: Indeed. I did the depressing stuff yesterday so it was nice to give the antidote today.

Anon @ 14:23: It's a tempting idea, no doubt.

BTS: Don't worry, it doesn't last long.

Andy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andy said...

Of course Davies is spot on. To add insult to injury and what he didnt mention, was that the 'hazardous' drinking level is a purely arbitrary level, plucked out of the air. And if you did your drinking back in 1987 you could safely drink 4 times as many cans of Stella. Don't you just love the RCP/Government nannying machine!
http://www.philmellows.com/PhilMellows_Diary_14_01_10.htm

Mark Wadsworth said...

*wild applause*

Eddie Douthwaite said...

Hi Dick,

And some are saying that the Smoking Ban WON'T be an issue in the coming election.

Tell that to 15 Million very angry smokers who saw a manifesto promise torn to shreds by this government.

banned said...

Bravo that MP.
The smoking ban is certainly an issue in the election as dippy Dave will find to his cost for accepting it as a done deal (just like he did with Lisbon).