The British government is well aware that people are easily fooled, utterly credulous and generally too stupid to make decisions in their own best interests.
Here, for example, is a big list of government offices, quangoes and regulatory bodies whose sole purpose is to stop Joe Public falling for the effortless charms of slightly cunning shysters.
From the FSA which allegedly stops finance professionals swindling us out of our investments to the Gambling Commission which tries to stop people throwing every last cent to the bookies; from the Advertising Standards Authority that tries to curb professional marketers from the wilder excesses of blatantly NLPing us or putting subliminals on the TV to the Office of Fair Trading which has an occasional stab at stopping retailers from swindling us there is one consistent message - left to our own devices, we will make stupid decisions. We will be hoodwinked, tricked and conned at every turn. We will eat things and smoke things and drink things that kill us, we will invest our life savings in magic beans, we will be traduced by slogans and propaganda into believing any nonsense the ad men want us to, and without the intervention of the benevolent state and its vast apparatus of consumer protection agencies we will be destitute in a week.
Which leads me, perhaps by chance, to mention that in less than six weeks we are all expected to troop down to the polls to decide who the next government will be. Which is a curious state of affairs, given that we can't be trusted to buy fish and chips or be exposed to the basic chemical fact that alcohol alters people's moods. And yet, and yet...in a very few weeks, without any assistance or mediation, the very same people who will be trusted to choose the next government. Given how well we apparently buy fish and chips, it will be no surprise at all if the government we choose is so bad that it...well, won't trust us to buy fish and chips on our own.
Comments