In an op-ed for the Telegraph, Lord Frost considers the paradox of ‘Apple Airtags’, and how Labour’s paternalistic policies resonate with a nation oscillating between a ‘nanny state’ and the call for individual responsibility. Here’s an excerpt:
Those of us who have spent our lives in and around SW1 have been known to become out of touch with the delights and dilemmas of everyday life in the rest of our country.
That is where the Lifestyle section of this great newspaper comes in. It is not, of course, primarily written for genuine fashionistas, foodies or internet ‘influencers’, whatever they may be, but for people like me who want to retain some sort of awareness of what normal non-obsessed-with-politics middle Britain is thinking. Out there in the Cotswolds, on the Suffolk coast, in the Yorkshire Dales, what are you eating, where are you travelling, how are you bringing up your families?
Even so, assiduous reader that I am, every so often I will read something that at first seems so weird, so alien, so different from the world as I have known it, that I’m left gasping.
Such, dear reader, was yesterday’s article suggesting that real people – actual sentient young adults – are willing to travel the world with an Apple Airtag attached to their baggage – so that their parents can see where they are at any moment, be it bar, beach or any of those more dubious spots that young people have been known to frequent on their travels.
Reading this, most people my age will, after a moment of horror and disbelief, bring back to mind some pleasant half-forgotten memories from those 1980s Interrail trips, give heartfelt thanks that we were born in the pre-digital era and move on.
But being a reflective sort of person, I paused further. Maybe this is not so strange. Maybe it reflects the sort of country we have become.
Deborah Meaden of Dragons’ Den fame, still seemingly coming to terms with the post-Brexit world, tweeted yesterday: “I want the grown-ups back.” That phrase is used a lot. Many people say that they look forward to a time when the ‘adults in the room’ are in charge again.
These are revealing phrases. They suggest the right relationship of the people to the government is like that of children to parents. As when a kids’ party gets out of hand, they want the grown-ups to show up and make everything right again. All too many seem to want this kind of government: the benevolent if controlling parent that takes care of everything important in life, leaving us just pocket money to have fun with.
Can’t have children? The Government should pay for IVF. Fat and unhealthy? Blame lack of regulation and Big Food. Ageing parents? Don’t expect me to use my inheritance to pay for it – the state should stump up. Lost your job and want new skills? The Government should pay for you to acquire them. Want fresh water and clean chalk streams? Make the water companies pay, not me, but don’t let them build any new pipes or reservoirs. Can’t afford your rent? The Government should bring in rent controls. Can’t afford your energy bill? The Government should subsidise it.
And of course – want to be protected from a new virus? The Government should lock us all in our homes to keep us safe.
This is the politics of childhood. And it comes with the downside of childhood: you have to do what your parents tell you. Under their roof, you live your life by their standards, not yours.
Worth reading in full.
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