Labour to launch war on consumer choice and parental responsibility
Thursday, January 15, 2015 at 0:01 At 9.00am this morning Labour will launch a "new approach to public health".
What they really mean is "more (much more) of the same, extended into areas such as food and drink".
Speaking at the left wing think tank Demos shadow health secretary Andy Burnham will "pledge to take tougher action to protect children from commercial pressures and the harm caused by alcohol, sugar and smoke".
According to the party's press release, embargoed until one minute ago:
Labour's approach to public health is illustrated in a new food policy. Maximum limits will be set on levels of fat, salt and sugar in food marketed substantially to children. And to support the population as a whole, Labour will pursue improvements to food labelling to help people better understand what they are eating, including working at EU level to introduce traffic-light labelling of packaged food.
Action on public health is essential not only to improve health and wellbeing but to ensure the NHS remains sustainable for the long term. For example, figures show that unless firm action is taken to halt the rise in obesity and diabetes, the cost of diabetes to the NHS will rise from £10 billion to £17 billion a year by 2035.
Forget talk about "personal responsibility", it's clear Labour wants the state to play an even bigger role in how we raise our children. At the same time they intend to impose even more regulations on adults in a bid to force us to change our lifestyle.
Two words you can expect to hear again and again are "protect" and "children".
Parents are responsible for securing the health of their children and will be better supported to do so. Labour believes Government action is justified to protect children as they do not make all their own choices and to support parents trying to make the best decisions for their children.
Measures the party intends to introduce in government include:
– Placing the promotion of physical activity at the centre of public health policy with new, easily-understandable recommended levels of physical activity and a new national ambition. This will include a basic minimum that everyone who can should try to do, and a recommended level that we should aspire to get at least 50 per cent of people achieving by 2025;
– Targeted action on high-strength, low-cost alcohol which fuels binge drinking and does most harm to health, with a range of options on both price and bottle-size being explored;
– Standardised cigarette packaging to be introduced immediately to halt the industry's increasingly sophisticated methods of recruiting new, young smokers; and a goal that children born in 2015 will become the first 'smoke-free generation'.
In his speech this morning Burnham will say:
"Labour has traditionally led the way on public health and this new approach will chart a new course towards a healthy nation in the 21st Century.
"In a century of rising demand, helping people take more responsibility for their own health will be essential if we are to ensure the NHS remains affordable and sustainable for the future.
"As part of this, children will need better protection from the pressures of modern living and the harm caused by alcohol, sugar and smoke and Labour will not flinch from taking the action needed to provide it.
"David Cameron and his Government are too close to powerful vested interests to stand up for our children.
"This new positive approach will help give all children a healthy start and help adults to get the most out of life."
Luciana Berger MP, Labour's shadow minister for public health, will then add:
"We want every adult to be able to make informed, healthy choices that are right for them. Whether it is deciding to cycle to work, taking up a sport or quitting cigarettes, today we are setting a range of actions we will take to support people to achieve this.
"Alongside this, we are setting our clear intention to take robust action to protect children from harm where voluntary measures have failed including regulating to limit the amount of sugar, fat salt in food marketed substantially to children, introducing standardised packaging of tobacco that this Government has failed to achieve, and cracking down on the high-strength, low-cost alcohol products that fuel binge drinking and do most harm to health."
Ignoring the fact that today's generation is living longer and is generally healthier than any previous generation in history, what Burnham is announcing today is no less than a war on consumer choice and parental responsibility.
Economic socialism is slowly being replaced by lifestyle socialism. It's been happening for years. The question is, what is David Cameron going to do about it? How the Tories respond will tell us an awful lot about the current Conservative party and whether we should vote for them in May.
Do they support further government intervention in our daily lives or will they side with the overwhelming majority of adults who are perfectly capable of making decisions for themselves and their children without the state breathing down their necks?
Don't hold your breath.
PS. Coming soon, the antidote to Labour's "action on public health", Action on Consumer Choice.
Simon Clark
Media reports to date:
Labour targets Frosties and jelly babies in public health campaign (Telegraph); Labour pledges to protect children from 'harm caused by alcohol, sugar and smoke' (Independent); Labour pledges limits for unhealthy food marketed to children (Financial Times).
I think the Telegraph is having a bit of fun at Labour's expense with that headline. Then again, perhaps not.
Elsewhere Chris Snowdon has posted this on his blog: Labour officially declares war on 'alcohol, sugar and smoke'.
Reader Comments (7)
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Surely people are tired of this. As far as I am aware there is a photo of this woman having a crafty fag outside the Ho Commons a couple of years ago. ( Luciana Berger)
Smacks of do as I say and not as I do (because I am an MP and therefore untouchable).
It is time we left the EU and make these so called MP's address the issues that the ordinary people of this country are concerned about instead of trying to micromanaging every aspect of peoples lives including how they bring up THEIR children.
I do not have any children, but this infuriates me. They are not the State's children, they are the parents' children.
I hope parents everywhere see this for what it is.
I was born in the 1950's and most parents (mothers mainly) had a modicum of common sense which they passed on to their children.
Do Labour think they will get more votes for this policy given the rise of UKIP in the last year?
"Parents are responsible for securing the health of their children and will be better supported to do so. Labour believes Government action is justified to protect children as they do not make all their own choices and to support parents trying to make the best decisions for their children."
To whom are parents 'responsible'? It looks as if they are responsible to Burnham MP, although he does not state where he gets his authority from. Could it be God? Has God empowered him to demand 'parental responsibility' for the raising their children as he demands?
It is an interesting question to ask if Burnham MP is prepared to establish a system of childcare which removes changing nappies, feeding, clothing, taking to school, etc, from the parents of a child. That would be lovely. The parents would then have none of the nasty pongs etc to put up with. Thus, parents would be able to spend 'quality' time with their children, being loving and playing with them and teaching them to be true health zealots, rather than feeding, dressing, nappy-changing, putting to bed, getting up in the morning and getting them to school. No. The State appointed carers will see to all that.
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Burnham MP is lying. He is a scoundrel and a charlatan. He is merely using the vague aspirations of the general public (whether they have children or not), as illustrated by various, emotion-driven YouGov type surveys, to gain browny points.
If Burnham's ideas were taken to their logical conclusion, then chaos would reign, since parents would be in a catch 22 situation. If their child is healthy, it is because of the beneficence of Burnham MP; if the child is sick, it is the parents' fault.
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I honestly have no idea how this nightmare situation can be overturned. The idea that parents must constantly observe some sort of time-table and 'caring system' as directed by Burnham MP fills one with horror.
Will the Tories smack him down? Hardly likely since they also have similar ideas.
The Burnham MP ideas are horrific. Our political system stinks.
...the cost of diabetes to the NHS will rise from £10 billion to £17 billion a year by 2035.
This is purely anecdotal, and I have no understanding of the mechanisms leading to diabetes, but I know several ex-smokers in their fifties / sixties, and they have all, post-quitting, developed type 2 diabetes.
"We want every adult to be able to make informed, healthy choices that are right for them. "
A classic example of Orwellian newspeak, which roughly translated means: "We intend to compel every adult to conform to what we decree is the right, healthy choice".
Do Labour really think this policy will encourage people to support them? Really sorry but this interference has exactly the opposite effect on me. I am sick to death of the nanny state interfering in our lives, from all parties. Do they really think people are too stupid to make informed decisions on how to run their own lives?
All the above comments are much more eloquent than mine, one of you at least has children (and may be grandchildren) Junican I read your blog regularly. I don't have children, adult nephews only, but if I was a parent I would be furious. What will be next? As Nisakiman posted, this is straight out of "1984". Have all the Labour Party used this as their manual since 1997? I am beginning to think so.
I will never vote labour again. They interfere into all our lives. BIG government at it's worse. We do not need these nanny state idiots in power. A totalariam state. Never again. God help us!!
Dear Mr Clark
I dare say the end game for our beloved government is prescription only food, and ultimately everything else, tailored to the average human livestock as modified to fit this week's ideal man.
Hair shirts all round, save for our beloved leaders, who have taken over the role of religion as principal punishers of the people.
Political ideology is the opiate of the ruling classes.
DP