Author Archives: Peter Dunphy

Labour’s swing to puritanism

By Peter Dunphy | Sun 23rd December 2007 - 12:05 pm

Since the departure of Blair the most noticeable change in the nature of policy statements and proposals have been on the classic battlegrounds of social liberalism versus social conservatism.

First we had the U-turn on Super Casinos. Then we had the proposals to re-reclassify Cannabis. We now have a suggestion to reverse the liberalisation of the licensing laws including pub opening times. This was followed by suggestions that the Police should be scouring the pubs trying to find drunks. There is the proposal to criminalise bar staff with hefty fines for serving drunken people. We have a criminal justice bill that includes very poorly thought out proposals to ban ‘violent porn’ that include provisions that would effectively criminalise perceived immoral thoughts. You can be in possession of a film that has been passed by the Classification Board but if you view it ‘principally for sexual gratification’ you are committing an offence. And now there is a suggestion by Harriet Harman to make it illegal to pay for sex.

In Brown and Harman we have a nightmare combination – the traditional religious puritan tendencies of Brown and Harriet Harman’s political correctness gone mad. And what makes matters worse is that both have very strong state interventionist tendencies.