Today the IEA publishes a paper setting out sensible policy changes that would move the UK to the bottom of the Nanny State Index rankings and make it the freest country in Europe – without taking the guardrails off.

The Recommendations:

Raise a glass

• Tax every unit of alcohol at the same rate – 13p per unit. To cover the cost to the government of alcohol misuse and fix the distorted and overly expensive system currently in place.


• This would roughly halve the tax on wine and spirits, cut beer duty by 30%, and increase cider duty by 50%. This would mean £5.20 on a litre of whisky, 39p on a pint of beer or cider and £1.40 on a bottle of wine.


• Allow restaurants and bars to stay open for as long as they like. Most Western European countries have no laws dictating when bars and restaurants must close.


• Repeal minimum pricing on alcohol in Scotland and Wales. Minimum pricing raises the cost of living and does not work. Heavy drinkers have not reduced their consumption since it was introduced and some of the heaviest drinkers are drinking more.

Let them eat cake

• Remove all restrictions on when and where food can be advertised. They are economically damaging, anti-competitive and reduce consumer surplus.


• Follow Norway’s lead and repeal the sugar tax. There has been no decline in childhood or adult obesity since the sugar tax was introduced in 2018. On the contrary, rates of childhood obesity rose in 2018 and 2019 – and rose sharply in 2020.

Up in smoke

• Halve tobacco duty. Bring it in line with Italy and Cyprus and strike a blow to the growing black-market trade.


• Ditch the blanket smoking ban. It should be replaced with a narrower ban which prohibits smoking in all state-owned buildings and which makes no-smoking the legal default in privately owned buildings unless the owner explicitly permits it.


• Legalise snus. This smokeless tobacco product has such a low-risk profile that the EU has removed the cancer warning from it in Sweden, but it is still banned in other EU countries. We can repeal that ban now that we are out of the EU.


• Allow less harmful tobacco products like snus and heated tobacco to be advertised. This would encourage consumers to switch to far less harmful products.


• Treat heated tobacco like e-cigarettes. Since there are substantial health benefits for smokers who switch to these products, heated tobacco should be exempt from the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act (2002) and be regulated differently from cigarettes.


• Repeal plain packaging. Few other countries have gone to such illiberal extremes. 


• Remove requirements for warnings on vapes, limits on bottle and tank size and nicotine strength and relax advertising restrictions. These arbitrary and unnecessary laws are a hangover from EU membership and should be replaced with evidence-based regulation.

Taken together, these practical measures would not make the United Kingdom a particularly libertarian country, let alone an under-regulated one, but it would make it the freest country in Europe when it comes to lifestyle choices. This would have upsides for the economy and individual welfare.

Head of Lifestyle Economics at the IEA and author of ‘Defanging the Nanny State’ Dr Christopher Snowdon said:

“I am not proposing anarchy or even laissez-faire with these reforms. I am only suggesting that Britain rolls back the nanny state by a few years and becomes more like Germany and Luxembourg than Turkey and Lithuania. With the Labour government and Chris Whitty wanting to double down on state paternalism, I am probably shouting into a void, but it worth remembering that a more liberal future is there if we want it.”

ENDS

IEA spokespeople are available for live and pre-recorded broadcast

Contact: media@iea.org.uk / 07763 365520

Notes to Editors

• Read the report here


• Read Chris Snowdon’s other work on the nanny state on the IEA website, including: Calories Out: The Unintended Consequences of Food Reformulation, and Prohibition 2.0: Critiquing the General Tobacco Ban


• Chris Snowdon’s book on the nanny state ‘Kill Joys’ is available here

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.