I was sipping a beer at 8am the other day when I read in the paper that a public health advisor wants to ban early-morning drinking at airports. I knew that the restrictions introduced when the pandemic began would probably encourage more of the same kind of restrictions when the pandemic was over. But I’m afraid that, well-intentioned as the advisors may be, they are ignoring one of the important rules of public policy which is that any law/rule/ban/whatever should be in proportion to the problem/issue/nuisance it seeks to control. It seems to me we should be careful as well to avoid a certain kind of snobbishness creeping into public policy in this area. Public policy, however, needs to be based on something more substantial than feelings of middle-class superiority; it needs to be based on fairness and proportionality.

Source: The Herald February 25, 2022 01:07 UTC