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		The Nanny-State: a threat to Liberty Freedom Today - April 4 2006 Stilton cheese (like fox-hunting) is one of the cultural gems of my home county of Leicestershire. Stilton Cheese (like fox-hunting) is under threat from the monstrous regiment of the politically-correct. And blue Stilton is my favourite cheese in all the world, so I was delighted to have the opportunity in February of visiting the Long Clawson Creamery, one of the largest Stilton cheese manufacturers, near Melton Mowbray. I found myself gazing into a vat containing 19 tons of milk, and wondering how many cows had contributed to it. I had (I am ashamed to say) imagined a Stilton creamery as two elderly ladies and a cow, so I was reassured to find a large, modern production unit employing 50+ people, and processing one of those 19 ton vats every day. To enter the factory area, I had to wear not only a white coat and a blue disposable hair net, but also a blue "beard snood" to cover my moustache. This, I was advised, was a consequence of EU health and safety regulation. But the immediate H&S threat to Stilton is home-grown. The government is concerned about the level of salt in our diets, and the consequent health risks, and is talking to the food industry about it. So far so good. There seems to have been a sort of an "arms race" amongst bake bean manu-facturers to ramp up the salt and sugar content, which can't be good. I have no problem if the government works with industry, on a voluntary basis, on "recipe products" like soup or pizzas to reduce salt content. But the salt in Stilton cheese, which has been made in the same way for 250 years, is not there just for the flavour. The salinity (typically around 2.3%) actually mediates the growth of the characteristic blue mould. With a lower salt level, the wrong moulds grow, "off-flavours" develop, and there is even a risk of harmful bacteria taking hold. The cheese is no longer blue Stilton. And let's get this into perspective. Popular imported cheeses like Danish Blue typically contain over 3% salt, while the famous French Roquefort contains a whopping 4% plus! What price the EU's vaunted Single Market if the French can send us 4% Roquefort, while our British makers of the King of Cheeses are forced to denature their own home-grown cheese? The government is threatening traditional foods. They are berating us for obesity. They are issuing us with ID cards at enormous expense, when the money would be better spent on police and immigration officers. And they are banning smoking, even in private clubs. Personally, I hate smoking. I have even been known to put paper bags over the heads of people smoking in No Smoking areas. I should be glad if no one ever smoked again. But even I as a strident anti-smoker feel that this blanket ban is a threat to liberty. Private clubs should make their own rules. And the pub industry is keen to solve the problem in a customer-friendly way, with smoking areas set aside and clearly labelled. A free society implies a degree of tolerance for those we disagree with, even smokers. As John Mortimer put it recently, "It is a mistake to criminalise an activity that a large body of reasonable people do not regard as criminal". And if that applies to smoking, how much more does it apply to hunting? Thank heaven there are now more hunt followers than there were before the ban came in. I have made a point of showing up at the local meet, and I am delighted to report that the hunt is in good heart, and hunting continues. In the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson set out a number of principles to guide a free and democratic society. Along with low taxes, limited government and free trade, he listed personal responsibility. Surely one of the reasons we see so much irresponsibility and fecklessness today is that the state seeks to take over the detailed governance of our lives, eating, drinking, smoking, and hunting. How will we ever re-establish personal responsibility as a key plank of a free society when we have outsourced most areas of personal responsibility to an overweening government?