Saturday 15 November 2014

Thank heavens for Mary Poppins!

I don't usually have much time for the sort of people who bang on about the "nanny state", partly because the complainers usually fall into that tiny sub-set of the population pampered enough to be familiar with actual nannies. But mostly because they seem perfectly happy with a big slice of nannying, so long as it's being advocated by the right sort of people.

The Prime Minister, having been told by some busybody that the Internet contains some material that you would not wish your wife or your servants to read, warns us that 'We must not allow the Internet to be an ungoverned space.'

Those avowed enemies of of the nanny state in the right-wing press could have given him a well-deserved monstering for this nannyish attempt to police the entire spectrum of human thought, just in case a few naughty people might be talking about things incompatible with public health and safety.

But the Daily Mail merely nodded approvingly at nanny's good sense:
PM backs spy chief’s blast at Facebook and Twitter over the help they give terrorists... ...
... Despite all the phoney outrage from libertarians, Snowden and tech companies, most British people recognise the incontrovertible truth that we can never have freedom without security.
And always keep a-hold of Nurse; For fear of finding something worse.

Meanwhile, over in Canada, it's apparetly quite OK to nanny giant energy corporations, in case those beastly tree-huggers pull nasty faces at them and make them cry:
Lawyer Bill Kaplan was speaking in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, where Trans Mountain is seeking an injunction against protesters who’ve obstructed pipeline survey work in a Metro Vancouver conservation area....
...On Wednesday, Mr. Kaplan presented photographs of the protesters with facial expressions he said were malicious. “One of the things I will argue is that is not only intimidation, but that is actually an assault,” he said. “Some of the faces demonstrate the anger, and frankly, the violence demonstrated by some of the people.”
The Globe and Mail

As a matter of fact, since we hired Mary Poppins, the most extraordinary things seem to have come over the household.

0 comments: