The new Puritanism

Not content with completely messing up our economic life, encroaching on our liberties, destroying our government and devastating our countryside, the EU is set to make our lives that bit greyer.

Courtesy of The Guardian, we learn that the EU commission is planning to put in place measure that will effectively outlaw the glossy advertisements for high performance cars.

As do packets of cigarettes carries a mandatory health warning, the commission are working towards requiring such adverts to carry a "climate hazard alert", with manufacturers would be forced to stop supplying pollution information in barely readable small print at the bottom of ads.

In addition, the commission is "believed" to be considering a "traffic lights" system whereby red dots or stars would mark out high-emission cars, and green ones low-pollution ones. An alternative may be an alphabetical system of A-G grades for pollution levels.

Such rules would force advertisers to leaven their creativity by including information on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in their sales pitches.

Needless to say, the proposal finds favour with Lib Dim MEP Chris Davies, who is dismissing the predictable protests from car manufacturers as "nonsense", likening them to those of the tobacco barons 20 years ago.

"The objective," he says, "is to encourage a shift in consumer behaviour… They're more interested in looks and appearance, speed and power, the sexy image. If the aim is to reduce emissions, you need to change that behaviour. Through its advertising, the car industry shapes market demand."

You know, the eurosceptics who paint images of an EU take-over, with jackbooted troops marching down Whitehall, have got it all wrong. The process is much more subtle, but much more dangerous – as these killjoys gradually but inexorably erode the whole foundations of our lives, using such "fluffy" issues as "climate change" to enforce their will.

There cannot be a man alive who, as a boy, has not poured over car advertisements and dreamed the dream – the pictures of power and beauty (in the eye of the beholder) fuelling aspirations which have led to great achievements.

But now, with the dead hand of the EU, life becomes that bit less exciting, that bit more grey and uninteresting. The new Puritans are amongst us, and they will not stop until they have us in sackcloth and ashes, imbibing their sterile creed and apologising for our very existence.

Meanwhile, enjoy the picture, taken from this site - you may not see much more of its like.

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