Interesting Articles
A collection of opinion pieces from the press reflecting the themes of "The Pub Curmudgeon".
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The crazy world of England’s smoking ban
- It’s built on anti-pub prejudice, junk science and petty authoritarianism, says Rob Lyons. So one year on, why do so few people see the ban as a blow to our freedom? (July 2008)
- A pint and a half sir? You're nicked!
- Richard Littlejohn condemns the government's plans to reduce the drink-drive limit as just another excuse to punish, bully and fine us (March 2008)
- Time for a sober look at 'epidemic' nonsense
- Charles Moore takes a sceptical look at the current hysteria about the alleged ‘epidemic’ of binge-drinking (February 2008)
- I am angrier with the government about the smoking ban than the Iraq war
- Rod Liddle says that the ban exemplifies all that is wrong with Labour: nannying piety, control freakery and an endless capacity for lies (January 2008)
- Who are you calling fat?
- We're told there's an obesity 'epidemic'. Yet there's not a shred of evidence, says Professor Patrick Basham – and this crusade is harming our children (October 2007)
- Europe to crack down on "passive drinking"
- Bruno Waterfield reveals that EC officials are plotting to make drinking as socially unacceptable as smoking. (May 2006)
- Smoking out the facts
- The ban on public smoking is justified as a measure to protect workers from second-hand smoke. But how big is the risk, asks Rob Lyons (February 2006)
- The winds of illiberalism blow through Chicago
- Jonny Thakkar reports from the Windy City, the latest place to ban smoking in public (December 2005)
- The Obesity Myth
- Paul Campos sees the 'war on fat' as a witch-hunt masquerading as a public health initiative (October 2005)
- Vice in a Vise
- Mike Miliard issues a tirade against the tyranny of health (March 2005)
- Calling time on the ‘demon drink’
- Neil Davenport wonders why the UK government is so panicked by the idea of people getting drunk in pubs (December 2004)
- We have ways of making you stop smoking
- Dr Michael Fitzpatrick points out the striking parallels between the Nazi 'war on cancer' and the New Labour crusade against smoking (November 2004)
- You've got to stub out that irritating fact
- Mick Hume questions the new moral orthodoxy - tobacco intolerance (October 2004)
- Big fat lies on obesity we swallow whole
- Ferdinand Mount asks why politicians have become so obsessed over the past 10 years with making us leaner, healthier and soberer. What has inflated their pretensions to wean us off our self-indulgences? (May 2004)
- Licensing reforms make me want to throw up
- Mick Hume argues that the Government’s plans to liberalise the licensing laws could be enough to make anybody turn to the bottle. A Bill that purports to "sweep away red tape" looks set to impose more mean-spirited regulations on the way we drink now. (November 2002)
- A sober politician is a danger to mankind? I'll drink to that
- Tom Utley wonders whether it is self-evidently a bad thing for a politician to be drunk (July 2002)
- Bar, Car, Black Sheep
- Rob Lyons questions whether the drink-driving problem really merits the Government's heavy-handed, moralistic approach (December 2001)
- We like drinking too much, so why do we do it so badly?
- Andrew Martin looks at Britain's unhealthy binge drinking culture and bemoans the lost art of moderate drinking (December 2001)
- Free Radical
- Christopher Hitchens explains why he’s no longer a socialist, why moral authoritarianism is on the rise, and what's wrong with anti-globalization protestors (October 2001)
- Ministers pander to a misguided populace
- Matthew Parris argues that, on many important issues, public opinion is always wrong, and therefore in a democracy any responsible political leader must throughout his career spend much of his time and creative genius in finding sneaky ways to block the settled public will without becoming too unpopular for it. (August 2001)