MEN'S MAGS, CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL.

Not very long ago, the do-gooders who rule our society succeeded in having 'men's magazines' removed from display in most newsagents. It was claimed that such magazines were demeaning to women and damaging to children, while pandering to the baser instincts of men. Whether or not such claims were justified does not matter, those who seek to control our lives won the day.

The next target of these control freaks was cigarettes. After much huffing and puffing, they succeeded in having cigarettes banned from pubs and clubs, public venues, offices, and so on, regardless of whether the people frequenting such places cared one way or the other. They managed to have lurid and ghoulish images daubed on cigarette packets and eventually had them locked away behind shutters in our shops. The only thing they haven't achieved is an out and out ban on the sale of tobacco products which would, of course, have far too great an effect on the government's income to ever be allowed, however much damage they cause.

I fully expected the attack on smoking to be followed by a similar attack on alcohol and, lo and behold, today it's started. A group of MPs has issued a report demanding that the government takes action on alcohol misuse. It wants warnings on bottles and a reduction in the limit for drivers, among its 10 so-called 'recommendations'. There is no room for personal freedom and responsibility in such demands, it is all about 'society's needs' and these people have set themselves up as the ones who know exactly what it is that society needs.

How long will it be before bottles of alcohol are required to have plain packaging or, worse still, the same type of imagery as is required for cigarettes ? How long before alcoholic offerings have to be hidden from view ? How long before we have new rules regarding age limits for the consumption of alcohol or where it can be consumed ? And what will be the next target of our controlling, do-gooding masters ?

If we are to be free, we must reject this nonsense and demand that our politicians get back to governing the country, and not our lives. If we do not, we may as well forget about democracy and personal freedom and just accept the dictatorship which those in power would rather enjoy.