Christopher Snowdon is Head of Lifestyle Economics at the IEA.
It is in these first days of January that our minds turn to self-improvement. Good luck to you if you are starting a new diet or giving up smoking. The masochists among you may be abstaining from alcohol this month. Some of you may even have joined a gym.
For the killjoys in ‘public health’, this is the most wonderful time of the year. After weeks of over-indulgence, we are more susceptible to a bit of finger-wagging. In the past, the conversation would be about what we can do to make ourselves healthier. These days, it is about what the government should do to force us to be healthier.
The Alcohol Health Alliance was straight out of the blocks on New Year’s Day demanding a clampdown on booze advertising; the Obesity Health Alliance has been calling for “robust prevention measures” to protect us from “unhealthy [food] options”.
It is a bad time to propose liberalisation, but that is what I will do. With the help of European partners, I edit the Nanny State Index. It is a league table of 30 countries based on how much they over-regulate food, alcohol, soft drinks, tobacco and e-cigarettes. The UK is consistently at the wrong end of the table.
It is due to get worse thanks to the forthcoming ban on HFSS food advertising, the vape tax, incremental tobacco prohibition and other policies conceived by the last Conservative government and eagerly brought to fruition by the current Labour administration.
Another world is possible. Countries such as Germany and Luxembourg have relatively little paternalistic regulation and seem to do alright. Instead of trying to compete with Turkey and Norway to become Europe’s top nanny state, let’s try to beat Germany and be the best country for consumer freedom. What would that involve?
Taxation is the big one. The UK has some unusually punitive sin taxes. We should halve tobacco duty to bring it in line with the likes of Italy and Cyprus. We should get rid of the sugar tax completely (as Norway and Denmark have done). We should set alcohol duty at 13p per unit for all drinks.
This would make the tax system more rational and would amply cover all the costs that excessive drinking imposes on public services. Most EU countries don’t tax wine at all! And Scotland and Wales could abolish minimum pricing, a policy that has failed to reduce alcohol-related harm and has cost drinkers a fortune. Ireland is the only other country in Europe that has been daft enough to introduce it.
The EU has various silly laws affecting e-cigarettes that have never been repealed in the UK. Brexit allows us to steal a march on our European neighbours. There is no reason why vape fluid should be only sold in 10ml bottles, for example. Nor should adverts for e-cigarettes and heated tobacco be banned in magazines and newspapers.
We should also legalise snus which was banned by the EU in the 1990s because it wrongly believed it causes oral cancer. It doesn’t, but the European Commission has been too pigheaded to own up to its mistake.
We should abolish licensing hours for pubs and restaurants. Of the 30 countries in the Nanny State Index, 18 have no national legislation dictating when licensed premises have to close. Restaurants and bars should close when their owners wants them to.
The owners should also decide on their own smoking policy. We should maintain the smoking ban in all state-owned buildings open to the public and have no-smoking as the legal default in privately owned buildings unless the owner explicitly permits it.
Finally, we should abolish restrictions on where tasty food can be positioned in shops and cancel the forthcoming advertising ban.
This might seem radical but it is not particularly libertarian (I haven’t even mentioned plain packaging, graphic warnings, or cigarette advertising, for example). Even if we did everything I propose above, we would only just get below Germany in the Nanny State Index.
We have become so accustomed to nanny state legislation that we don’t realise how weird Britain has become. ‘Public health’ lobbyists want us to believe that the UK is suffering from too much laissez-faire. The Obesity Health Alliance complains about “government inaction”.
In reality, the UK is going further than any other country in restricting the promotion of ‘unhealthy’ food and it is the only country that is seriously considering a generational tobacco ban. Most of supposedly dirigiste Europe is a haven of liberty by comparison.
Further reading: Defanging the Nanny State by Christopher Snowdon (IEA).
Christopher Snowdon is Head of Lifestyle Economics at the IEA.
It is in these first days of January that our minds turn to self-improvement. Good luck to you if you are starting a new diet or giving up smoking. The masochists among you may be abstaining from alcohol this month. Some of you may even have joined a gym.
For the killjoys in ‘public health’, this is the most wonderful time of the year. After weeks of over-indulgence, we are more susceptible to a bit of finger-wagging. In the past, the conversation would be about what we can do to make ourselves healthier. These days, it is about what the government should do to force us to be healthier.
The Alcohol Health Alliance was straight out of the blocks on New Year’s Day demanding a clampdown on booze advertising; the Obesity Health Alliance has been calling for “robust prevention measures” to protect us from “unhealthy [food] options”.
It is a bad time to propose liberalisation, but that is what I will do. With the help of European partners, I edit the Nanny State Index. It is a league table of 30 countries based on how much they over-regulate food, alcohol, soft drinks, tobacco and e-cigarettes. The UK is consistently at the wrong end of the table.
It is due to get worse thanks to the forthcoming ban on HFSS food advertising, the vape tax, incremental tobacco prohibition and other policies conceived by the last Conservative government and eagerly brought to fruition by the current Labour administration.
Another world is possible. Countries such as Germany and Luxembourg have relatively little paternalistic regulation and seem to do alright. Instead of trying to compete with Turkey and Norway to become Europe’s top nanny state, let’s try to beat Germany and be the best country for consumer freedom. What would that involve?
Taxation is the big one. The UK has some unusually punitive sin taxes. We should halve tobacco duty to bring it in line with the likes of Italy and Cyprus. We should get rid of the sugar tax completely (as Norway and Denmark have done). We should set alcohol duty at 13p per unit for all drinks.
This would make the tax system more rational and would amply cover all the costs that excessive drinking imposes on public services. Most EU countries don’t tax wine at all! And Scotland and Wales could abolish minimum pricing, a policy that has failed to reduce alcohol-related harm and has cost drinkers a fortune. Ireland is the only other country in Europe that has been daft enough to introduce it.
The EU has various silly laws affecting e-cigarettes that have never been repealed in the UK. Brexit allows us to steal a march on our European neighbours. There is no reason why vape fluid should be only sold in 10ml bottles, for example. Nor should adverts for e-cigarettes and heated tobacco be banned in magazines and newspapers.
We should also legalise snus which was banned by the EU in the 1990s because it wrongly believed it causes oral cancer. It doesn’t, but the European Commission has been too pigheaded to own up to its mistake.
We should abolish licensing hours for pubs and restaurants. Of the 30 countries in the Nanny State Index, 18 have no national legislation dictating when licensed premises have to close. Restaurants and bars should close when their owners wants them to.
The owners should also decide on their own smoking policy. We should maintain the smoking ban in all state-owned buildings open to the public and have no-smoking as the legal default in privately owned buildings unless the owner explicitly permits it.
Finally, we should abolish restrictions on where tasty food can be positioned in shops and cancel the forthcoming advertising ban.
This might seem radical but it is not particularly libertarian (I haven’t even mentioned plain packaging, graphic warnings, or cigarette advertising, for example). Even if we did everything I propose above, we would only just get below Germany in the Nanny State Index.
We have become so accustomed to nanny state legislation that we don’t realise how weird Britain has become. ‘Public health’ lobbyists want us to believe that the UK is suffering from too much laissez-faire. The Obesity Health Alliance complains about “government inaction”.
In reality, the UK is going further than any other country in restricting the promotion of ‘unhealthy’ food and it is the only country that is seriously considering a generational tobacco ban. Most of supposedly dirigiste Europe is a haven of liberty by comparison.
Further reading: Defanging the Nanny State by Christopher Snowdon (IEA).