Paternalism is more acceptable, I suppose, if you get to be the parent. Because children are immature and deemed incapable of making responsible decisions, parents sometimes make decisions for them. Most of us accept this as a way of protecting children as they grow up, make mistakes, and acquire responsibility themselves.

Her Majesty's Government, sometimes referred to as 'nanny,' has been taking wider powers to assume that parent-child relationship with many of its adult citizens. It either regulates or wishes to regulate the circumstances and the degree to which they can eat high-sugar and high-fat foods, smoke tobacco, drink alcohol, and engage in risky activities ranging from boarding buses to adventure sports.

Its argument is that it knows better than we do the extent to which we should indulge in these things and, further, that it has the rights of a parent to over-rule our judgment in favour of its own. A parent has this authority as guardian and custodian of the child because it is assumed to be more mature, knowledgeable and responsible. For some reason the state seems to think itself more mature, knowledgeable and responsible than its citizens, but it is by no means obvious that it is.

There used to be a class in Britain which thought that those who used cutlery the right way and pronounced 'awf' correctly possessed a natural superiority and leadership which entitled them to dictate how others should live. It did this in their interest, of course, thinking it knew what was good for people better than they did themselves. Its influence and self-confidence did not survive the extension of choices and opportunities which Lady Thatcher introduced. But its replacement as lifestyle custodian by elected governments has not removed the fundamental weakness of paternalism.

When people's decisions are taken for them, they never learn to take responsibility for their own actions, and to accept the consequences accordingly. They remain, in effect, children. Ministers say that people are unaware of the facts about healthy diet and lifestyle, or, when they are aware, are 'insensitive' to those facts.

Some of these facts are contentious, and in some cases a refusal to conform to them can represent a trade-off. The donuts might be bad for us, but they taste good. A stern nanny might take the decision out of the hands of a child, but many might question how the state acquires the nanny's authority to dictate the donut consumption level of adults. If people never acquire responsibility themselves, they never acquire the independence which accompanies it. They expect to be protected at every turn, as children are, and feel indignant when things go wrong. They look for people to blame, rather than being ready to acknowledge a mistake and to learn from it.

In a free society adult citizens should learn wisdom as they make their choices. Sheep, on the other hand, should eat the pasture chosen for them and return obediently to the fold at the summons of the tinkling bell.