Chris Snowden on the Ever-Growing Nanny State

May 31, 2021 • Gary sits down with Christopher Snowdon, author of the Nanny State Index. They discuss vaping; smoking; sugar taxes; Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol; the drive towards increased nanny statism coming from NGOs; & what consumers can do to fight back.

These interfering dudes in government have absolutely no sense of 'joie de vivre'! Further, they forget that they work for us: they are our public sevants. Their positions are paid for by our taxes! They should get off our backs and let us lead our lives as we see fit! I can think of a few people in politics in the UK—I won’t name them – today—who behave like interfering old women! In years gone by, we used to call them Betsys! Even though I have successfully given up smoking, listening to this discussion makes me want to start again!

People are not becoming healthier from quitting smoking at all. Instead of smoking, people now eat loads of junk food instead, and grow fatter abd fatter. As a result, obesity and type-2 diabetes rates are soaring. So, instead of dying from tobacco-related illnesses, they are now dying of illnesses related to obesity, insulin-resistance and metabolic syndrome instead. And that's a fact!

Whilst it is healthier not to smoke, it is healthier not to do so only if one vice is not substitued for another. Political hacks don't seem to understand this. One could speak of the law of unintended consequences here. – @ Mark

Drying Out: Islam and the Rise of Prohibition Culture
THE INDEPENDENT: In the Middle Ages Islam had no problem with alcohol, now - from Sharia Patrols in the UK to flat out bans in Egypt - the crackdown is gathering strength

In the last few weeks, Al Jazeera has been posting videos on its global web site of Islamic vigilantes “patrolling”, as it puts it, the streets of Whitechapel ensuring that the various British citizens inhabiting its pavements are doing their best to conform to shar’ia law. A notorious instance involved an unfortunate, and wholly innocent, gay man who was told that he was “dirty” and should get out of the neighborhood immediately. “Yes,” he was forced to say, presumably under the threat of a boot in the groin, “I am dirty.”

The British mosques duly condemned the patrols, and the Metropolitan Police made its usual ineffectual vows. But the videos themselves, as far as I could see by watching them in Dubai that week, evoked very little disgust in readers sharing the Faith. It struck me immediately that there was very little reason that such patrols should not progress from the rarified joys of beating up homosexuals to demanding that people stop drinking in public in the same neighborhoods. Lo and behold, other videos show drinkers being forced to pour the contents of their cans on to the streets.[.]

It would be easy to dismiss these patrols as outliers. But then again, who twenty years ago would have foreseen them ever happening in the first place? The Islamic revival, for want of a better word, which is changing the face of two civilizations at once – ours and Islam’s – has not been flexible on the question of alcohol, any more than it has on the question of gay love.

Writing about Cairo recently, I made so bold as to mildly observe that the number of “baladi” bars in that once bibulous city has noticeably diminished. A few grizzled ex-pats chose to deny it, but most Cairenes are all too ready to lament the gradual erosion of their once free-ranging alcoholic night-life (the sale of alcohol has recently been bannedaltogether from settlements around the capital). The world of Om Khaltoum and Mafouz and Youssel Chahin was saturated in drink, but the Cairo of 2013 is headed in a very different direction. One might even claim that a link exists between the diminishment of overflowing bars and the increase in covered female heads. It is far from preposterous. » | Lawrence Osborne | Monday, February 18, 2013

German Jews Want 'Mein Kampf' Reprinted
THE INDEPENDENT: Country divided by call to republish Hitler's anti-semitic autobiography

Germany's Central Council of Jews has taken the unprecedented step of backing a proposal to republish Adolf Hitler's infamous autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf, which has been strictly outlawed in the country since the end of the Second World War.

Although many German Jews still oppose reissuing Hitler's anti-Semitic work, Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the country's leading Jewish organisation, supports a new scholarly edition of the work designed to inform future generations of the evils of Nazism.

"It makes sense and is important to publish an edition of Mein Kampf with an academic commentary," Mr Kramer said. "A historically critical edition needs to be prepared today to prevent neo-Nazis profiting from it."

However the southern state of Bavaria, which holds the rights to the book, remains strongly opposed to the idea. "We won't lift the ban as it may play straight into the hands of the far right," said a spokesman for the Bavarian government. "Prohibition is highly regarded by Jewish groups and we mean to keep it that way," he said.

Several German academics, including the historian Jürgen Faulenbach, also oppose republishing the work and insist that it does little to throw light on the Nazi era. "The book does not provide any important answers to questions about how the Nazi regime was possible," he said. "It only contains the polarising views of the author. To lift a 60 year old ban on Mein Kampf would be problematic."

Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which means "My Struggle", in 1924 while serving a four-year term in a Bavarian prison. The book contains the Nazi leader's well-known views on racial purity, and demonstrates his hatred of communism and the Jews. It also hints at his long term plans for the Holocaust. >>> Tony Paterson in Berlin | Monday, August 10, 2009

The Independent leading article: Publish and let Hitler be damned >>> | Monday, August 10, 2009

Upon Sober Reflection, Bahrain Reconsiders the Wages of Sin: Island Reliant Upon Debauched Visits From Thirsty Saudis Looks to Clean Up
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: MANAMA, Bahrain -- Every weekend, bumper-to-bumper traffic blocks the causeway into this small island nation as visitors from nearby Saudi Arabia flock to delights unavailable at home: movie theaters, bars and, for some, commercial sex.

With few other attractions, Bahrain's booming tourism industry thrives on the island's reputation as a freewheeling oasis just a short drive from major Saudi cities. Bahrain has little oil of its own; tourism, mostly by the four million Saudis who cross the causeway each year, accounts for a tenth of its economy.

All of this is endangered, as Bahraini legislators press to scrap the country's drinking laws -- currently the most liberal in the Persian Gulf -- and to impose near-total prohibition.

"I'm sorry to say, but Bahrain has become the brothel of the Gulf, and our people are very upset about it," says parliamentarian Adel Maawdah, one of the promoters of the new legislation. "It's not only the drinking that we oppose, but also what it drags with it: prostitution, corruption, drugs and people-trafficking."

The Parliament's elected lower chamber unanimously approved a motion last month to prohibit alcohol in hotels, restaurants, duty-free shops and aboard Gulf Air, the national airline. Lawmakers acted amid outrage over a widely circulated men's Web-site article placing Bahraini capital Manama in the world's "top 10 cities to pursue vice and debauchery." The prohibition proposal must now go to the upper chamber, appointed by King Hamad, and to the government for endorsement.

Not even Mr. Maawdah expects that Bahrain will enact a complete Saudi-style ban in the immediate future. The government, however, is likely to respond to parliamentary pressure with fresh curbs. "Nobody is talking about banning alcohol completely," says Sheik Mohammed bin Essa al Khalifa, chief executive of Bahrain's Economic Development Board and a prominent member of the royal family. Still, "we all want to put restrictions on sleaze, and this will be for the good of Bahrain."

Already, just before last month's Parliament vote, the government forbade alcohol and live entertainment in dozens of one-star and two-star hotels popular with weekenders from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the two Gulf countries that outlaw booze. It also clamped down on prostitution, which is illegal but widely tolerated, rounding up and deporting hundreds of women. In earlier restrictions, Bahrain has begun to enforce legislation that prohibits alcohol consumption during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and has closed popular wine shops in residential areas.

"Step by step, they're tightening up," a Western diplomat says. "In the medium term, it may well come to a complete prohibition."

This drive contrasts with other Gulf monarchies, such as Qatar and Abu Dhabi, where harsh drinking laws have been relaxed lately. "When everyone else is opening up, we're going in the opposite direction," complains Ebrahim Sharif Alsayed, leader of Bahrain's secularist Waad movement. Bahrain's ruling family, he adds, "is allowing the Islamists to gradually Islamize the society." >>> By Yaroslav Trofimov | Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Herr Doktor! Ich habe Ihnen 'was zu erzählen: Kettenraucher, Helmut Schmidt, Raucher seit 70 Jahren, ist immer noch mit 88 Jahren am Leben! Zudem glaubt er nicht mehr an Gott! Was sagen Sie dazu?

Foto von Hemut Kohl dank dem SpiegelOnline

“Mit dem Rauchverbot werde es kommen wie mit der Prohibition. Irgendwann werde es wieder aufgehoben” - Helmut Schmidt

SPIEGELONLINE: Rauchende Köpfe gab es nicht, dafür einen dauerqualmenden Helmut Schmidt. Beim Maischberger-Talk traf er auf Richard von Weizsäcker. Gemeinsam genoss man den Dunst politischer Nostalgie.

Es gab Anlass, sich auf ein Gespräch über die grundlegenden Dinge des Lebens einzustellen: "Helmut Schmidt glaubt nicht mehr an Gott", lautete die Botschaft, die die Kommunikations-Agentur von "Menschen bei Maischberger" gestern bereits um 17.58 Uhr per Mail an die "lieben Medienkollegen" verschickte. Das habe der "ehrwürdige Politiker" der Gastgeberin in ihrer soeben aufgezeichneten Sendung "gebeichtet".

Wer die Talkshow dann um 22.45 Uhr in der ARD verfolgte, den musste freilich zunächst mal etwas anderes fesseln: das unbeirrbare Kettenrauchen des 88-jährigen Altbundeskanzlers. "Ich wäre wahrscheinlich längst tot, wenn ich noch im Amt wäre", erklärte Schmidt qualmend zur Eröffnung, um rasch ein klarstellendes "aus Gründen der Überarbeitung" hinterherzuschieben. Auf die erste Zigarette folgte Schnupftabak, auf den Schnupftabak die nächste Kippe. Bald konnte sich auch die Regie einer gewissen Faszination nicht mehr erwehren und blendete ein: "Helmut Schmidt, Raucher seit über 70 Jahren". Viel Rauch um nichts (mehr) Von Peter Luley

Mark Alexander