A Bipartisan Nanny State

H/t Menzies House.

The Liberal Party has backed down on the idea of supporting intellectual property rights and has now agreed to support Labor's plain packaging laws for cigarettes. Labor has criticized Abbott over the Liberal Party taking donations from “big tobacco,” what ever the term might mean. In terms of the nanny state big is bad, small and unsuccessful is the beloved of the Lord, large and profitable is the Devils disciple.

Bob Menzies originally formed the Liberals with the idea of being a party based on the traditional principles of liberalism but with the exception of the small ‘ginger group’ essentially had no idea of classical liberal philosophy. They have long abandoned any commitment to any sort of genuinely liberal values and have for a long time been just another party of big government and the nanny state.

It is a long time since they have come up with a solution to anything that did not involve an expansion of government. This is the reason they are hoping and praying that Gillard continues to look bad, as that is their only chance of gaining power. They have no ideas that are markedly different to Labor. They oppose the Labor tax proposals for mining and carbon, but this is only out of opportunism, as with the alternatives they propose, they will have to increase revenue. This will have to involve tax increases by whatever name they think up to disguise them.

The Liberal Democrats are the only genuinely liberal party left in Australia.

Smokers already know cigarettes are unhealthy, but choose to smoke anyway. That will not change as a result of plain packaging. However, it will create a precedent for more government intrusion into areas where it thinks it knows better than adult Australians.

Cigarette companies have threatened to take the issue to the High Court, which will probably find the legislation unconstitutional or compel the government to pay billions in compensation for destroying the intellectual property (brands and trademarks) of the tobacco companies.