The Government should stop people from doing X

So here we have Devil's Kitchen flirting with Charlotte Gore...

Quote of the day comes from Charlotte "remind me why on earth is she in the LibDems?" Gore, and is just a couple of paragraphs from an article stuffed with quotable bits.

I do actually remember the days when I’d say, “The Government should stop people from doing X” and think, you know, the people who want to do X? They’re scum, aren’t they? Who cares what they think? Sure a lot of people won’t like it, but the greater good will be served.

I used to think like that. Over time, however, as I found myself more and more in the ‘X’ category at the hands of this Government, I began to become more and more uneasy about this sort of thing. Who am I to impose anything on anyone? What if I’m wrong? The reasoning that you had to be a bit fascist if you wanted to be properly liberal stopped making sense. The best way to fight fascism is to promote liberalism, and that means using liberalism as your weapon of choice.

Quite so. One of the themes that I have been advocating over the last year or so—both here and in my occasional public speaking—is that what those in power really do is to apply their own personal morals onto those who may not share said prejudices.

And moments later I stumble over to Open Europe to read this...

Birgitta Ohlsson of the Swedish Liberal party, a member of her country’s coalition government, has launched a campaign for the right to have an abortion to be considered a human right in all EU member states.

Called www.makenoiseforfreechoice.eu it plans to obtain the 1 million signatures required for its demands to be considered by the European Commission under the terms of the “citizens’ initiative” proposed under the Lisbon Treaty.

The website says that countries like Ireland, Malta and Poland are denying women their human rights by banning abortion and that the women of Europe can “no longer be ignored”.

It says: "It is time for the EU to secure the right to free, safe and legal abortions and render it a human right."

Clearly, the organisers of the campaign don't feel at all put off by the so-called 'guarantees' offered to Ireland at last month's summit - which stressed that the Lisbon Treaty will in no way threaten Ireland's laws on abortion.

Its pretty much the same deal, someone else trying to enforcing their morals on in this case a whole nation. The more you pass sovereignty up the chain, the more likely your own morals and preferences will be trampled on. And the more often your find yourself facing conflicting laws and statutes and saying "I didn't vote for this..."