Just fuck off. Seriously.

The Coalition really are just another bunch of nanny-state wankers aren't they. I was cynical about them, but I thought we might see some small changes. But no. Now we have "nudging", because some twat has read a book and decided this is how to run a Government. So today we have this:

How much for this initiative, you may ask? 250 million pounds. £250'000'000. A drop in the ocean compared to the monumental debt mountain of a trillion (can't be arsed to write it out, it's a lot of zeroes), but still a lot of wonga.

Andrew Lansley, who is rapidly becoming the Comical Ali of the Coalition (although it actually isn't that funny), is also expected to

...announce moves to stop sales of cheap alcohol, to launch a consultation on the introduction on plain tobacco packaging, and draw up measures to encourage businesses to do more to allow women to breastfeed at work.

So, the parlous state of the UK economy will be fixed by making booze more expensive, making smoking even cooler (and these more popular) and finally making women unemployable and/or small businesses bankrupt.

A source said: “The Government's tack on public health will switch from 'nannying' under Labour to 'nudging' under the Coalition, with the idea of encouraging people to make healthy decisions on their own without lots of regulation and pressure from Whitehall.

So, it's the same, just a slightly different and arguably more pernicious method. At least Labour didn't ever really try to hide their desperation to control every part of your lives. The Coalitiamong however think people are so stupid that they can be conned into changing behaviour. They're probably right, but there is nothing remotely Conservative about this coalition, and truly nothing Libertarian, despite having an "instinctive libertarian" at its head.

Freedom to Chewse

In the US, it seems the Major League (of Baseball) want to ban players from using smokeless tobacco while playing. To be clear, they are referring to chewing tobacco. The reasons? Health risks and a bad influence on the children.

So a grown adult will now be banned from using a product that is completely legal and has absolutely zero negative impact on anyone other than the user. This adult is not allowed to look after his own health, and of course we have the "won't anyone think of the cheeldren" argument.

“The highest prevalence of smokeless tobacco use in recent years has been observed among young adults, especially males,” Pechacek said today in prepared testimony. “Few adults 26 years or older reported initiating smokeless tobacco use,” he said, citing data from 2002 to 2007.

The key word there is "adult". So now, a man under the age of 26 is so impressionable that he will start chewing tobacco purely because a baseball player does it.

The utter contempt with which we are treated (and it's the same in the UK, although not in Switzerland yet thank god) is truly depressing.