England 1983: Socialist dreams… Orwellian nightmares.

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

You are blissfully enjoying a cigarette with an alcoholic beverage, unfortunately outside as is law now, at a pub in England. The choice of a smoking or non-smoking pub has been made for you by the state. So you’re outside in the rain despite paying £9 for a packet of cigarettes and £3-odd for a pint of beer (or should I say 568ml glass of beer containing 2.1 metric units of alcohol) as it will be known rather shortly. The cost of both products is astronomical due to the heavy tax imposed by the state. You’re soaking wet from the rain, you had to walk to the shop as its now illegal for the pub to sell cigarettes from a vending machine.

There is no justification in this scenario for any politician, or some know-it-all intellectual, to take these quite basic freedoms away from you. And, believe me, they want to take those rights away from you. Imagine somebody came across to you, poured away your pint, snatched and stamped out your cigarette. You would be right to yell, politely of course, obscenities and for them to mind their own business.

The problem in this scenario, however, is that as you get home from the pub and start to regain warmth in your extremities, turn on the BBC (compulsory funded left-wing media) and light up a cigarette which for the minute is still legal to do within your own home. On the program sit three politicians from ‘different’ parties all echoing the same drivel. The difference between these parties is simply pedantic; they agree with the guy who poured away your pint and stamped out your cigarette. They aren’t arguing about whether or not they should limit your freedoms, they are arguing about how they are going to do it.

The key to taking your freedom away is by manipulating the individuals costs to the NHS and other public services to fit their political agendas; we’ve all heard the line “such a persons behavior costs £x on the NHS”. Herein lies the argument for private un-politicised healthcare and public services, but I wont digress.

These politicians basically state that your body is no longer yours; it belongs to the state, because the state will have to fix or ‘take care’ of you if it breaks. Any school child with a pocket calculator can debunk this completely bogus line of argument right away, because the vast sums of money the state receives from tobacco and alcohol far outweigh the cost impaired on the state from their use.

But hey you might not drink or smoke, this won’t affect you, not until they take away a right that you do care about. I don’t personally ride a motorbike but I would defend an individuals right, however stupid, to ride it without a crash helmet. Freedom comes with responsibility.

Recently we have heard talk of a ‘fat tax’ on food and drink in order to curtail the so-called obesity epidemic facing Britain. This is huge; this is totalitarian, a government wishing to control not only your lifestyle choices, but even the food you eat. Where is the public outrage?

People today seem to want the government to exercise control over them, primarily because they have no control over themselves as individuals. This inevitably results in a loss of freedom, both to the responsible and irresponsible individual.

There is an immense threat upon freedom in this country, its not about whether or not you agree with another persons lifestyle choices, its about whether its justifiable to take that right away. Am I the only person unsettled by how many other personal freedoms our politicians could apply this to?

The list of prohibitions and coercions will inevitably continue to grow, along with the states power, whilst personal freedom and responsibility are diminishing along with the sunset each day. This is progress, this is 1983… heading for 1984.