Lindsay Perigo
Lindsay Perigo

The Politically Incorrect Show - 11/07/2001

[Music - Die Fledermaus]

Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Wednesday July 11, proudly sponsored by Neanderton Nicotine Ltd., the show that says bugger the politicians & bureaucrats & all the other bossyboot busybodies who try to run our lives with our money; that stands tall for free enterprise, achievement, profit, & excellence, against the state-worshippers in our midst; that stands above all for the most sacred thing in the universe, the liberty of the human individual.

[Music up, music down!]

The alco-nazis, including the Prime Minister, are in full cry, pushing to raise the legal drinking age back up to 20 in the wake of alleged binge-drinking by teenagers since it was lowered to 18. I guess my own idea of not having a legal drinking age at all is never going to fly, even though we could live without one just as easily as we have lived without six o'clock closing. In any event, I was heartened to receive a copy of an editorial in the June edition of New Zealand Retail, which describes itself as "New Zealand's leading retail business magazine." Written by Martin Craig, it sports the excellent title, Don't Matronise Us, & is pertinent to the subject I just raised. Here are parts of it:

"During the past couple of months, the Government has taken some moves to tell New Zealanders how we should be running our lives & running our businesses. The decree from on high that half of every pub must be set aside for non-smokers, & the more recent announcement that the Government would intervene to change New Zealanders' drinking habits, represent an intrusion into our private lives that this Government has no mandate for. ...

"New Zealanders don't like being told what to do [if only that were true!], & we shouldn't have to put up with it from voted representatives. We should be telling them what to do, not the other way round.

"We don't all have the same lifestyles. Some of us are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Some have different sexualities. Over the last decade we have learned to celebrate this diversity & recognise that differences make for a richer community. So why, then, should the Government try to enforce uniform drinking & smoking habits on a diverse community? ...

"What's next? A ban on fish & chips? No red meat for men older than 55? The Don't Leave the Seat Up Act 2002? ...

"Voters get to make a decision every three years. We would all like to be able to do some thinking for ourselves in the meantime."

The well-wisher who sent me this editorial attached a note saying, "This might cheer you up. Shows you're not fighting the battle alone." It did, & it does.

To Martin Craig, editor of New Zealand Retail magazine, the Free Radical Award.

(FreeRad Award)


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