Mike Bloomberg Seems to be Inspiring Tory Health Policy. Which is a Problem.

If there’s one thing Team* Spectator agrees upon it is, I think, that Tory health policy is utterly inadequate and desperately confused. One especially problematic promise, however, is the notion that what we need is a Department of Public Health. How will this work? Well, the inspiration would seem to be Mayor Mike Bloomberg in New York City. This is not Good News:

First New York City required restaurants to cut out trans fat. Then it made restaurant chains post calorie counts on their menus. Now it wants to protect people from another health scourge: salt. On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products. The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years.

So a War on Salt (voluntary at this stage, admittedly) follows the Wars on Smoking and Obesity and further enhances Nurse Bloomberg’s reputation as the Big Nanny Who Always Knows Best. Individually, of course, you might not object to any one of these measures; collectively they represent a gross and unnecessary intrusion. Each intervention then becomes the justification for the next one. Sooner or later you’ve been nudged into a longer, less enjoyable, less free life. Progress?

But is there anything in Bloomberg’s record that wouldn’t be embraced (and enthusiastically!) by Dave and his chums in the “Progressive Conservative Party”. I don’t think so. And that’s a problem, surely?

*There is no party line, nor any attempt to impose one. Just in case you were wondering.

[Hat-tip: Ezra Klein who, being an excellent lefty, thinks Nurse Bloomberg is just dandy.]