Centralised planning on its way to a place near you…
Check out this infographic showing Public Health’s plan for top-down food planning here in the UK which appeared in The Lancet last week. Truly chilling….
H/T to Christopher Snowdon for spotting this. As he says
“This is Government with a very big G. It is state control of what can be made, what it looks like, how it is sold, where it is sold and what it is sold for. The only thing the government doesn’t do is make and sell the food itself (except in schools).
It is no wonder that the ‘public health’ model of top-down control of people and industry tends to be more popular with parties of the left than those of the right, but it is surprising that so few people on the centre-right fully recognise the ‘public health’ movement as the socialist enterprise that it is.”
Couldn’t put it better ourselves. The truly frightening part of this is that Public Health actually believe in this. How long before they start calling for state-ownership of supermarkets; compulsory purchasing of farms; no … stop… we are giving them ideas…
It all started with tobacco regulation. Blame the big evil companies not the individual – demonise them, penalise them, regulate them them, take away their property rights and ultimately drive them out of business. Paint a picture of the individual as the weak victim in this scenario – not the discerning consumer.
“Individual responsibility” has no part to play in their doctrine (for doctrine it most certainly is). Politicians seem eager to lap it up – always easier to tell voters that they are victims of evil forces than it is to tell people that they need to change. Who wants to be told go get off their butts and go do some exercise, when they can be told to sit back and play the victim.
Non-smokers foolishly believed the mantra that tobacco was a “unique product” – and that the penalties applied to tobacco would never, could never, be applied to everyday stuff. And yet , here is the blueprint for top down planning – because, as they see it, people are stupid and all companies are evil.
February 23rd, 2015 at 12:27 pm
OK, so what are you lot (the people at Liberal Vision) doing about it?
I guess most who read these articles are already opposed to stuff like this, to put it mildly.
However, the LIb Dems at Westminster, like the Conservatives and Labour, are obviously onboard with the authoritarian agenda. That’s why I’ll be voting UKIP as they are, heaven help us, the nearest the UK has to a small-government party.
So what are you doing to change Lib Dem policy; because at the moment if I rank parties by ascending level of authoritarianism (and that’s how I’ll be voting) it’s UKIP, then the Tories and Lib Dems about the same, then Labour then the Greens. As an ex-Lib Dem voter I’d love someone to prove me wrong on that ranking.
February 24th, 2015 at 5:08 pm
Hi Alex.
In the main you are right – readers of Liberal Vision do agree with our anti-authoritarian, small government stance. We know that several Lib Dem MPs keep an eye on our blog and we can only hope that at least some of them take on board our points.
To be frank changing policy is hard. As an ex-Lib Dem voter you probably know all about the wholly undemocratic voting system that still exists in the Lib Dem party (you only get to vote on policy if you can spare the time to go to conference and only then if you have delivered sufficient focus leaflets to have earned yourself a voting pass issued at the will of the local party officials). We also face swathes of committees all determined to maintain a Social Democrat agenda.
The answer to your question about what we are going to do about it is “we each do what we can”. That clearly isn’t enough but it is something. And increasingly our message is aimed at the wider liberal-loving public not just Lib Dems.
I can’t disagree with your views re your ranking of parties – and I confess that I am still a “don’t know” on who to vote for at the upcoming election.
Thanks for your comments 😉