Reviewing The Bully State
Saturday, November 28, 2009 
Chris Snowdon, author of Velvet Glove Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking, has written a review of Brian Monteith's The Bully State. Comparing the book to David Harsanyi’s Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotalling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America into a Nation of Children (2007), Snowdon writes:
Eating, drinking and smoking feature prominently, since they have been propelled into the frontline by an over-mighty public health lobby. But, as Monteith argues, this regulation of lifestyle is a symptom - albeit a far-reaching one – of a wider shift of power from the individual to the state.
The expansion of CCTV, the erosion of trial by jury, identity cards, censorship, health-and-safety hysteria and the DNA database constitute a ‘bullies’ charter’ made more dangerous by the ‘jobsworth mentality’ of British officialdom.
Readers who have not visited Britain for several years may be shocked by the lurch towards authoritarianism described in this book. Those who have witnessed the creep of the bully state first hand will be enraged, amused and informed in equal measure.
The full review can be found on the online magazine Spiked HERE.
Reader Comments (4)
Please don't look upon this post as spam, but I've stuck an anti smoking-ban video on YouTube. I hope it gets a few views as it really takes the p**s out of the Government.
Please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGf4EVoACvI
Dear Herr ChavvyGit -
Vielen dank for the film. But please do NOT be comparing diese 'bedwettern' - as I believe you Englanders call them - with unser Fuhrer.
He may have been a little wacky, es ist wahr, but at least he knew what he was doing - most of the time.
And to think we once (in private) thought that YOU were the real Master Race !
Who says Germans have no sense of humour ?
Great review Chris.
Monteith says "this regulation of lifestyle is a symptom of a wider shift of power from the individual to the state".
What England needs now is a revolution, something on the lines of the miners strike for the freedom to lead their own lives.