The tactics of the liberal progressives

With the smoking ban due to come into effect very shortly I guess it should be no surprise that the killjoys who insist on nannying the nation should move on to their next target for eradication - alcohol.

The news that bottles of beer and wine will carry health warnings strikes a familiar chord with those of us who recall the way they brought in the "discreet" warnings on packets of cigarettes thirty years or so ago. Back then, the warnings were pretty much the same as the new warnings on alcohol are today - the tactics haven't changed, only the target.

This is how it will be for the next thirty to forty years. Gradually increasing the size and directness of the warning until they take up half the bottle and loudly proclaim that "Beer kills". There will be more and more studies that demonstrate the harm alcohol causes. Don't be surprised if you're at a dinner party one evening and hear some self-righteous liberal half-wit tell you that every unit of alcohol shortens your life by five minutes.

With these reports to back them up the next stage will be to bring in bans on alcohol advertising on television, then ban them from billboards and sporting events. We'll be hearing how 400,000 people every year die from "drinking related illness" - which will be attributed to anyone who has ever had a drink. Soon, someone who dies after falling down a flight of stairs will be described as dying from a "drinking related illness" as they had drunk half a pint of shandy the day before.

There will be numerous reports warning you that drinking makes you fat, smelly, ugly, flatulent and impotent. It will be blamed for hair loss, tooth decay, bad complexion and premature ageing. Much of this already happens, of course.

Then there will the warnings over "secondary drinking" telling us that drinkers kill 100,000 people every year who have never drunk. Pressure will grow to ban drinking in public places - even if they are private establishments. The ban will be introduced piecemeal - with breathless TV bimbos telling us how the drinking ban has been such a success in Cardiff with people happily relaxing in pubs turned into coffee bars.

Meanwhile, in the real world, there will be a massive increase in cases of long term depression, more and more people claiming they are unable to work,more cases of road rage, air rage, supermarket rage, parking spot rage, school gate rage and every rage under the sun - because people need a pressure valve to escape the stresses of life.

The fact is that life isn't always easy. Some people find escape from those stresses and strains through natural methods - like exercising at the gym or yoga - but not everyone has the time, opportunity or money to do those things - and when they need to "chill out" they reach for a cigarette or a glass of wine. When those things are taken out of their reach then they reach for something else - increasingly it is anti-depressants.

Liberal progressives don't understand this - partly because many of them prefer illicit drugs like marijuana or cocaine, but mainly because they are almost always well removed from the realities that every day people - working class people - face. Those people have traditionally adopted alcohol and tobacco as their panacea of choice - but those legal drugs are being taken out of their reach by liberal progressives who do not understand - or refuse to understand - the need for these drugs. When those things are taken out of their reach then they reach for something else. Many of them are going through legal routes and obtaining anti-depressants -but many are turning to the illegal substances supported by liberal progressives.

Thirty years from now we will be a nation with virtually no smokers (tobacco will be banned by then) and few drinkers. Instead we'll have legalised marijuana and millions of people will be living their lives either whacked out on dope or anti-depressants. There will be millions of people "unfit" to work and huge numbers of people suffering from mental illness. The consequences for the nation are too dire to contemplate.