Tyranny of the majority driven by a tyrannical minority

The IEA's Chris Snowdon made a good point on GB News the other evening.

Responding to the question, 'Is it time to ditch meat and go vegan?', Snowdon told presenter Andrew Doyle:

My only concern about the veganism and vegetarian movement is at some point in the future it is possible that these people will become a majority and once you get a majority [of] people who think something is ethically unacceptable then there's a good chance they are going to go out and try and ban it.

Personally I think it will happen sooner than that. After all, look at smoking.

Until the late Seventies, when smoking rates fell to less than half the population, smokers (male smokers especially) were in the majority.

Then, as smoking rates continued to decline (thanks to a better understanding of the health risks), the anti-smoking movement began to call for smoking bans.

The majority don't smoke, they seemed to be saying, therefore no-one should be allowed to smoke.

Meat eating will undoubtedly follow the same trajectory only quicker because there now exists a playbook that can be followed by any government that wants to restrict or ban a consumable good considered 'unhealthy' for either the individual or the planet.

To give you an idea of how advanced the anti-meat lobby is, it was reported yesterday that Oxfordshire County Council is to introduce a 'vegan-only' food policy.

According to the BBC:

It means only plant-based meals will be served at Oxfordshire County Council events and vegan options will be on school menus.

Jeremy Clarkson, who famously has a farm in Oxfordshire, said:

"It's the principle of it. You can't dictate. You might be a vegetarian but you can't make everyone else a vegetarian just because you are."

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately the days are long gone when Clarkson might also have said:

"You might be a non-smoker but you can't make everyone else a non-smoker just because you are."

In fact, before he quit smoking a few years ago Clarkson wrote a column supporting the smoking ban which he claimed had helped him cut down.

It may have been tongue-in-cheek - you can never be sure with Clarkson - or simply contrarian but it struck me that with 'friends' like Jeremy it was going to be far harder to win our battle against prohibition.

Lo and behold, something he still enjoys (meat) is being banned at events in his county and he doesn't like it.

Sorry, Jeremy, but that's what happens if you support any form of prohibition. Campaigners and politicians simply move on to the next target.

The only surprise is how quickly Oxfordshire County Council has moved to ban meat when vegans and vegetarians are still a minority and those demanding a meat-free world are an even smaller group - a minority within a minority.

Then again, spot the similarities with the war on smoking.

Although the majority of the population has been non-smoking for almost half a century only a small minority has ever been fanatically anti-smoking but it’s that tyrannical minority that is driving the ‘smoke free’ agenda.

With meat however they’re not even bothering to wait for vegetarians and vegans to be in the majority before campaigning for prohibition.

As the Oxfordshire County Council initiative demonstrates, it’s happening right here, right now.

Comments

[Simon]

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