My favourite place in Stuttgart to partake of ale and converse with rugby-watching English-speakers takes two print journals. The Guardian and The Economist. Balanced, if not fair (€3.90 for a Newcastle Brown)!
Anyway, whilst perusing one of those fine publications yesterday, I noticed the splendid phrase “would involve a level of illiberalism which not even this government is prepared to countenance.” in this article.
ENJOYING yourself? Well you’d better stop, then. This week is banning week in Britain.
For those who take their pleasures where they can get them, it looks as though the government has succumbed to a nasty bout of gloomier-than-thou Methodism. It wouldn’t be surprising: the roots of the Labour movement lie in the finger-wagging of 19th-century preachers. But puritanism is not the only thing going on. Behind the government’s apparent determination to make people lead better, purer lives whether they like it or not lie two different impulses, one decent, one not.
I’m going “home” tomorrow, and after a pint or x* of fine ale - I’m going to see what I’m still allowed to do.
*That’s x as in variable as opposed to the Roman numeral. Of course, x might = 10
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