Nanny state

The term nanny state, professor of health policy at Curtin University in Western Australia wrote in an opinion column, "was born in a 1965 column by Quoodle in the British weekly, The Spectator. Quoodle was Iain Macleod, who as minister for health smoked through a 1954 press conference to publicise the dangers of smoking. He died at 57 of a heart attack."

"Tobacco companies love their nanny," he wrote. Daube noted that the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company complained in 1997 about "The concept of the nanny state where government determines for its sheep-like citizens what is good for them, and what is not". Daube noted that the Cato Institute argued in the late 90s, "there can be no doubt that tobacco is only the first in a long list of products from which the nanny state will protect us. What comes next — coffee, soft drinks, red meat, dairy products, sugar, fast food, automobiles, sporting goods? The list is endless, and the fear of repression is not mere paranoia".

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Propaganda
 * Tobacco industry

External resources

 * Mike Daube, "Nanny state fears are just a smokescreen", The West Australian, August 22, 2008.