Friday, September 13, 2024
Nanny State?
There is no better illustration of this than the agenda being set out by Keir Starmer and his health secretary to stop us harming ourselves in an effort to save the NHS.
As the Guardian reports, plans to ban junk food ads and to stop children buying high-caffeine energy drinks are among radical public health measures being drawn up by ministers to prevent illness:
Junk food advertisements will be banned from television before the 9pm watershed, the government has announced. Online ads for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether. Both measures, which are intended to help tackle childhood obesity, will come into force in a year’s time.
Plans to ban children from buying high-caffeine energy drinks, which form part of the same public health drive and appeared in Labour’s election manifesto, are expected to be announced next month.
In the coming months, the government plans to introduce a strengthened tobacco and vapes bill, which is likely to extend the indoor smoking ban to pub beer gardens.
Ministers are also looking at expanding water fluoridation to improve dental health, and giving councils enhanced powers to block the development of fast-food outlets near schools to tackle obesity. Further measures are being looked at, with government officials canvassing the public health sector for policy ideas.
This amounts to a massive power grab by the UK government, direction and control, rather than persuasion and education. It is the same old Labour.
