An addendum

to the post below (A useful reminder) re the proposal for "a walk of shame" in supermarkets for those who dare to exercise their right to buy alcohol, in the form of a quote from CS Lewis:

"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."

[from "God in the Dock"]

This also rasies ("tormet us without end") a point that I was thinking about the other day, which is the fact that there is no logical endpoint to the efforts of those currently in power to control and limit our right to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, no point where they will say "Right, I think we've done enough on that front now", save banning these activities on pain of criminal sanction. Sure, there may be some murmurings from the Treasury as the requirement to register with the police before cigarettes can be bought reduces the tax income from tobacco, but the fascism of "those who torment us for own good" will overcome, I am sure.

A useful reminder

Just when your humble blogger was starting to think that this whole Osborne business was starting to look like the bad old Tories of old, and you know, perhaps NuLab aren't really that bad after all, have I been unfair to them, and so on, just when this is going round my mind comes along this proposal for buyers of alcohol in supermarket to face a, quote, walk of shame to a separate checkout. And I am reminded of what nannying, bullying pricks they are.