“..The iron convention observed by almost everyone in showbiz: no matter which way you vote in private, you must always pretend in public that you’re an ardent liberal-lefty.
“I say “almost” because I can think of at least three other honourable exceptions to this rule. One is Adele, who in 2011 had the temerity to complain in an interview about the injustice of her monstrous tax bill. “Trains are always late, most state schools are s**t and I’ve gotta give you, like, four million quid — are you having a laugh?”
“Another is Morrissey, who once admitted he “nearly voted for UKIP”, found Nigel Farage’s views on Europe “quite logical”, and recently said he was disgusted by the way the BBC “persistently denigrated everyone who voted to Leave” and implied that they were “racist, drunk and irresponsible”.
“Both were pilloried for their remarks afterwards. Yet surely, in their way, they were being far truer to the rebellious spirit of rock and roll than their platitudinous, career-safe peers. Morrissey, you might argue, was a lot closer to the views of the ordinary working man than Bob Geldof on his chartered gin palace flicking V-signs at Brexit-voting fishermen.”
– James Delingpole, ‘At least Tory pop stars are honest and authentic’, The Financial Times, 2 December 2016.
A narrow band of urban sophisticates wishes to take action against what they perceive as a social ill. The ban comes into force. Far from improving public behaviour, it makes it demonstrably worse.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution on 16th January 1920 introduced a national ban on the sale, production and transportation of alcohol throughout the United States. The intention of the ‘dry’ movement was to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, lower the tax burden caused by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in North America. It failed on every level.
Far from reducing crime and corruption, it boosted both. Al Capone, one of the most infamous beneficiaries of prohibition, was by 1927 earning $60 million a year from alcohol sales alone. As he conceded, “all I do is satisfy a public demand.”
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