UK Government Saves the World

Apparently with nothing better to do than slug another industry with yet another pointless and expensive regulation, the Communist Health Minister of Britain, Caroline Flint, will be making drinks companies put health warning labels on bottles of wine.

Despite a complete lack of any evidence whatsoever that any of these labels will prevent the consumption of a single drop of alcohol, anywhere in the country, Ms Flint wants to get in the papers to boost her image and so this regulation must be passed by our betters so she can get more exposure.

It seems there's been a terrible rise in binge-drinking, recently, and Ms Flint is determined to stamp it out, albeit with utterly pointless controls like this one.

Perhaps she could stick a warning label on her friend and master, Tony Blair, who recently introduced 24-hour drinking into Britain. Now I'm all for a complete lack of regulations in every single voluntary-trade industry you can think of, but if you did believe in governments and their right to interfere in our lives for our own good, what do you think would be the most effective way of preventing a serf from drinking 'too much'?

• Sticking a warning label on bottles of wine


• Keeping all alcoholic retail outlets closed at 11pm

Yup, it's a tricky one. But it would seem our joined-up government is incapable of grasping it. I wonder how many new Lordships there are in the alcohol industry?

POSTSCRIPT: I think Von Mises summed this up best. If we, the people, are too stupid to be allowed to purchase bottles of wine without government censure, why are we clever enough to vote in politicians like Ms Flint? Answers on a postcard please, to Ms Flint at Westminster marked 'Having your cake and eating it'.