Helen Clark on the nanny state
How do you respond to people who complain about "nanny state" and that they are"sick of Labour telling them how to run their lives"?
I can't relate to the criticism at all [because I don't have kids to smack and I don't have to pay for anything]. It just doesn't square to me with anything we have done [apart from the smacking legislation]. I stand for the maximum possible freedom of people [except when they want to have a say on political matters in election year, have a high pressure shower, or smack their kids, for example], but any democratic society will place some constraints on that, for example racist abuse [ and, like child abuse, this government has placed no legal restraints on that]. There is always a line that is drawn somewhere but I am someone personally who likes to be left free to live my life [while telling others as to how they should live their lives]. I think the people who scream 'nanny state' are usually the ones who want to be the most prescriptive about the way people live their lives [so I thought I`d play my part as Prime Minister to assist them] .
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