Just when I thought that ex-BritPM Tony “Oily Little Shit” Blair had disappeared from public view, he steps forward with yet another Nanny-State idea:
Tony Blair has urged ministers to tax junk food so it is too expensive for the poor in a bit to tackle obesity. The former Labour prime minister urged an interventionist policy on public health, with an expansion of the sugar tax, new levies on foods high in fat and salt, and advertising bans.
He said ministers needed to help ‘create the circumstances’ in which poorer families choose healthy food, and likened the situation to the fight against smoking when he was in No10 — which included a ban on publicly lighting up indoors.
…which did fuck-all except drive people outdoors to get their nicotine fix. It certainly didn’t stop poorer people from buying cigarettes. There’s no reason to suspect that his jihad against “junk” food will perform any differently.
I also love the “create the circumstances” line — a classic piece of unctuous Blairite pablum which covers the intrusive governmental bossiness of what he’s suggesting. “We know better than you what you should do.” (cf. Hillary Clinton.) And speaking of this bitch…
This, by the way, is the real problem with electing leaders when they’re young: they carry on with their bullshit after leaving office (e.g. the Clintons, the Obamas and even Jimmy fucking Carter). As much as I detest the late Harry S(hitbrain) Truman, when he left the Oval Office he retired to Bumfuck MO and we never heard from him again.
Would that his political descendants would follow his example.
