Libertariërs stellen zich op tegen aanval op zwaarlijvigheid

In een rapport dat vandaag is verschenen van de Commissie Gezondheid van het House of Commons (Engelse Tweede Kamer) wordt een strategie beschreven voor de aanpak van zwaarlijvigheid en obesiteit.

De aanpak lijkt verdacht veel op de Oorlog Tegen Roken, zegt de Engelse Libertarian Alliance in een persbericht dat vandaag werd verspreid:

“This is a brilliantly-choreographed mix of junk statistics, unsubstantiated claims, generalisations from single instances, tear-jerking pleas to ‘save the kiddies’, raids on our pockets and personal freedoms, and demands for jobs and status for the usual class of politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, educators, and politically correct clients in corporate big business. Nothing like this has been seen since the anti-gun hysteria that followed the shootings at Dunblane in 1996.”

“ATTACK ON OBESITY A CLASSIC CASE STUDY IN HEALTH FASCISM”, SAYS FREE MARKET AND CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK

The Report on Obesity of the House of Commons Health Committee is a classic case study in health fascism, and a further ominous step toward a police state says the Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties think tank and pressure group.

Libertarian Alliance Director of Communications, Dr Sean Gabb commented:

“This is a brilliantly-choreographed mix of junk statistics, unsubstantiated claims, generalisations from single instances, tear-jerking pleas to ‘save the kiddies’, raids on our pockets and personal freedoms, and demands for jobs and status for the usual class of politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, educators, and politically correct clients in corporate big business. Nothing like this has been seen since the anti-gun hysteria that followed the shootings at Dunblane in 1996.

“Fat is a personal issue. It is up to people themselves to take action. If they do not and thereby make themselves il, that is their choice and their problem. As for children, they are the responsibility of their parents. Obesity should not be an excuse for a further power grab by a bunch of politically correct nannies. That is what this House of Commons Report is about. Like a cat playing with a dead mouse, the health fascists are turning their main efforts away from smoking towards fat. Advertising controls – aka limitations on free speech – compulsory exercise and weigh-ins at school: these are hall marks of tyranny.

“The Spartan state used to measure the body mass of its people by pinching their stomachs with iron callipers. The German national socialists used to denounce the ‘heresy’ that health was a personal issue. Now the British state is joining in. These are all sins of the principle that the state owns individual bodies and has the right to shape those bodies like a farmer shapes the bodies of his cattle.

“The Libertarian Alliance opposes all and any moves to limit the right of food companies to market their products in any way they please. We oppose any assumption of control over the bodies of children by the authorities. We oppose advertising controls. We oppose compulsory warnings on foot packaging. We oppose taxes on supposedly unhealthy foods. We oppose public health information campaigns. We deny the truth of the often fabricated statistics about the human and financial costs of overeating. We denounce these politicians and doctors and ‘scientists’ as self-righteous bigots. If they want to do something useful, they should look to taking their own bodies in hand, and eave the rest of us alone.”