Matthew Parris on the tension between freedom and people's best interests
Matthew Parris had a really good article in yesterday's Times about the tension between individual freedom on the one hand, and the desire of well meaning people to stop others doing things which risk their lives or health on the other. It was inspired by the issue of the "sugar tax" but has much wider application.
This is a tension of which I have been increasingly aware since my appointment to Cumbria's Health Scrutiny Committee and it is not an issue on which there are any easy right answers.
Matthew's article "Don't let nanny get too big for her boots," which if you register for a number of free articles each week or fork out the paywall fee can be read here, was intelligent, provocative, nuanced, balanced and fair.
It reminded me why I used to enjoy reading Matthew's pieces so much before about the time of the Brexit vote, when he became increasingly obsessed with overturning the result of the referendum and appeared to lose, on that subject at least, the ability to see both sides of an issue which had previously made most of his articles so interesting.
After listing a whole range of subjects in which he was once against state intervention and now thinks he was wrong on the specifics - but not entirely wrong about the general principle - he concludes
"Resistance is neither impossible nor worthless."
"'Sink or swim' has a vital role both in the development of the individual and the efficient working of a society. Competitiveness, insecurity, fear of failure and visible examples of human failure are a necessary spur to human progress,
"Therefore I do not entirely repent of my youthful libertarianism. We are right to bark at the nanny state. Unless rebuked, nanny will get too big for her boots.
"But I believed once that there was no need for nannies. I no longer believe that."
This is a tension of which I have been increasingly aware since my appointment to Cumbria's Health Scrutiny Committee and it is not an issue on which there are any easy right answers.
Matthew's article "Don't let nanny get too big for her boots," which if you register for a number of free articles each week or fork out the paywall fee can be read here, was intelligent, provocative, nuanced, balanced and fair.
It reminded me why I used to enjoy reading Matthew's pieces so much before about the time of the Brexit vote, when he became increasingly obsessed with overturning the result of the referendum and appeared to lose, on that subject at least, the ability to see both sides of an issue which had previously made most of his articles so interesting.
After listing a whole range of subjects in which he was once against state intervention and now thinks he was wrong on the specifics - but not entirely wrong about the general principle - he concludes
"Resistance is neither impossible nor worthless."
"'Sink or swim' has a vital role both in the development of the individual and the efficient working of a society. Competitiveness, insecurity, fear of failure and visible examples of human failure are a necessary spur to human progress,
"Therefore I do not entirely repent of my youthful libertarianism. We are right to bark at the nanny state. Unless rebuked, nanny will get too big for her boots.
"But I believed once that there was no need for nannies. I no longer believe that."
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