By targeting junk food and smoking, the government isn’t attacking ‘freedom’. It’s just fulfilling one of its most vital roles

The UK government’s plans to restrict junk food ads, ban energy drink sales to children and phase out smoking have been met with a predictable refrain: that this is all a “nanny state” plot. “Keir Starmer plots vast expansion of the nanny state”, the Telegraph warns. The Daily Mail reported a “furious backlash” to “nanny state” smoking bans.

The phrase was first widely used in 1965 when a former Conservative minister was unhappy about the introduction of the 70mph speed limit on England’s motorways. He was expressing the view that the government shouldn’t treat its people like naughty children who need a nanny to tell them what they are and aren’t allowed to do.