How far can the nanny state go?
Well, at least this far (and rather literally so). The Irish Times reports:
Photographs of infants are to be banned from baby formula packaging under new European Parliament rules on the labelling and content of baby milk and foods for medical purposes… Labelling of such formula and follow-on formula must not “include pictures of infants, or other pictures or text which may idealise the use of such formula” in order “not to discourage breast-feeding”, the rules say. “Infants, young children… are clearly not consumers like any others and it is our duty as legislator to fix stricter rules to govern, for example, the composition and labelling of foodstuffs intended for them,” said the rapporteur Frédérique Ries after the vote.
One reason, Ms. Ries, that babies are not consumers like any others is that they do not, you know, shop for themselves.
Ms. Ries, of course, knows that perfectly well. It’s the parents she’s after, but I would never have expected her to be quite so open in her argument that adult voters are no better than infants when it comes to making the right shopping choice.
Paternalism unbound, I guess. Bloomberg will doubtless be taking note.