NEWS RELEASE FROM THE LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE
In Association with the Libertarian International

Release Date: 27 May 2004
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details: Sean Gabb, 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk
And Chris R. Tame, 07957 644 519, chris@libertarian.co.uk
For other contact and link details, www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr017.htm

"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 their 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 bellies 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 signs 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 food 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 leave the rest of us alone."

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Note to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of Communications for the Libertarian Alliance and edits its journal "Free Life". His latest CD, 'War and the National Interest: Arguments for a British Foreign Policy', Read by Sean Gabb is available at http://www.seangabb.co.uk/buy.htm. His books are available from Hampden Press at www.hampdenpress.co.uk.

His main published writing on diet and health is 'Out of the Closet - Confessions of a Dieter', available at http://www.seangabb.co.uk/flcomm/flc109.htm

He can be contacted for further comment on 07956 472 199 or by email at sean@libertarian.co.uk

Extended Contact Details:

The Libertarian Alliance is Britain’s most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Our postal address is

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199

Associated Organisations

The Libertarian International - http://www.libertarian.to - is a sister organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the world.

Sean Gabb's personal website - http://www.seangabb.co.uk - contains about a milion words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and conservatives

Liberalia - http://www.liberalia.com - maintained by by LA Executive member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of documentation on these issues for students and scholars.

Libertarian Samizdata - http://www.samizdata.net - works in association with the Libertarian Alliance and has an ever larger following. Check it out.