The human race is doomed to repeat itself

We just don't learn, do we? All the lessons are there in our history, yet we refuse to listen

Communism killed a hundred million people in the twentieth century, yet in the last couple of decades, Socialism and Communism are again being looked on with admiring eyes. Of course we are told that all the atrocities in history were not real Communism and this time we can do it right

All the human misery that Communism has so far been responsible, has been the responsibility of Governments who force this reprehensible philosophy on the people they Govern, but people who refuse to learn from history are now desperate for Governments to force this on us again

Capitalism has apparently failed, because people are greedy. Imposing Socialism does not stop people being greedy, it simply gives Government the power over those people so they can take what they have and redistribute it, which is where the oppression begins, as nobody wants their hard earned wealth to be redistributed

It's always the people who produce nothing and have nothing that want Governments to take it from others and give it to them. Not bad if you're on the receiving end, until you realise that redistributing all the wealth invariably means that in conclusion, nobody has anything

During Trumps visit to the UK, a number of protesters have screamed that the Communist way is the best way. 'I'm a Communist, you idiot', has been the cry of many a Trump protester this week. Simon Cook on Twitter and on his blog, thinks this is no different to declaring yourself a Nazi

He is of course, correct, yet for some reason, the Left has infiltrated Government, Media and Society to such an extent, that declaring yourself a Communist is perfectly acceptable, yet being just right of centre is totally unacceptable. Why are people not persecuted for following this hideous philosophy, just as they would if their t-shirts lauded the Nazis?

There was a film trilogy in the eighties (I think) called 'Amerika'. It was a story of how Communist Russia had taken control of America in a bloodless coup, simply because the American people had rejected the decadence and greed of Capitalism and opened their arms to the East. If you get the chance to watch it, I would recommend you do. It's quite harrowing and it's another one of those tales. like 1984, that were supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual

Yet here we are, watching the very same thing happening in the West today. A new generation of collectivists are taking us down this very path; people who have never had to live under oppression, never known real poverty and lived their lives in relative freedom

And you can see the hatred and intolerance of the modern left. Anyone right of centre is 'Tory Scum'. Anyone who disagrees with the collective mindset is vilified, attacked and shouted down. You can see that if these people do get their way, Communism in the modern era would follow no different a path that it ever has done before

And the people we are supposed to trust lead us are lapping this up. Governments in the west are moving away from freedom and democracy and over to control and bullying. They believe they know better than us how we should live our lives and they believe they have the right to force us to live the way they decide

A completely collectivist society would be perfect for the people in power, it would give them full control over how we live. No more Brexit, no more Trump, no more freedom of any kind. Full state control. And people are actually demanding that this happens. It beggars belief

World War One was referred to as the War to end all wars. Because of our inability to learn from the past, there have been many more wars since. If you include the cold war, America has been in a perpetual state of war since the end of WW2. Trump, the one the Communists hate with a fever, may be the man to put a stop to that, but it's unlikely

The American people (in general) see their military as an altruistic force for good that protects their freedom, even though American freedom seems to be located somewhere in the Middle East. Americans don't seem to question military action around the globe, they just keep thanking the military for their service and protection. I've been there and seen it. I just couldn't fathom what they though they were being protected from

It's almost like the military is some kind of religion. A bit like our NHS

Saving the NHS means forcing us to change the way we lead our lives

Forcing. You'll notice that Nick Cohen in his Guardian article does not talk about saving people or saving lives, he only talks about saving the great God NHS

It’s not just Big Macs that would have to go: M&S, Waitrose, transport and sport must be rethought for the common good

'The Common Good'. This is the collectivist mindset in a nutshell. This is the reason for one hundred million deaths in the twentieth century. When people are no longer allowed to decide what is good for them, when the rulers at the top get to decide what is good for everyone as a whole society, even though that society is made up of millions of individual people with their own needs, wants and dreams, you get Communism. And when people decide they want to think for themselves in such a society, they die

If you imagine a healthy future for Britain, or any other country that has put the hunger of millennia behind it, you see a kind of dictatorship. Not a tyranny, but a society that ruthlessly restricts free choice. It is a future that views the mass of people as base creatures jerked around by desires they cannot control. Expert authority must engineer their lives from above for their own good and the common good.

Please read that paragraph a few times and take in all the points made, because it's implications are horrifying

Health is the most important thing above all else and you don't get to decide how healthy you are or how you get there
A dictatorship that ruthlessly restricts free choice is not tyranny
People cannot control their own desires and their decisions should be made for them
Other people, presumably also humans, must be put in positions of power where they can control everyone elses desires
This is for the common good. Individuals no longer get to decide what is good for them

The author has just described the worst qualities of hard line Communism and he is not warning us away from it, he advocating it

Here’s my partial sketch of how Britain would have to change to limit the costs to the NHS that stunted lives and avoidable pain will bring.

Spoiler alert! He is not about to discuss possible cost savings and reform of the NHS. But you probably already knew that

Pedestrians and cyclists would have priority on the roads. If the roads are too narrow to take cars, cycle lanes and a pavement wide enough to allow pedestrians to walk or run in comfort, then cars will have to go. School runs will become history as heads refuse to admit any able-bodied child who arrives at school in a car.
It will not necessarily be illegal to drive in towns and cities, just pointless. Motorists would inch along because cycle and bus lanes would take up road space and pelican crossings would be reset so pedestrians never had to wait more than a minute to cross a road. Even when they reached their destinations, drivers would search forever for a space because car parks would have been demolished and replaced with public parks.

On the altar of the NHS God, infrastructure would be destroyed. All deliveries would be made by carrying goods in your packets while riding a bike
Nobody would be able to live more than a few miles from their workplace. We've seen the results of that, before mass transport
Notice electric cars and any other green technology is also out of the question. This isn't about the environment for once, is only about making sure you don't put on any unauthorised weight

Presumably motorbikes would be fine in this dystopian future? Of course the collectivist believes that everyone is the same and must be treated equally, so to take that to it's conclusion, we would live in a society for healthy people on foot and on pushbikes, but fat whaps on motorcycles

Of course most people are not fat, but the collectivist believes in collective punishment. If one person gets fat and costs the NHS money, we all loose our cars

No fast-food outlet would be allowed within a one-mile radius of a school. 

 A policy already proven to be bunkum

Agricultural subsidies for fat and sugar would be abolished. Rapeseed oil and sugar beet cultivation would stop as new subsidies for public transport began.

I'm sure production would not stop if subsidies were cancelled. This would probably require a forceful intervention form the benevolent Peoples Party of the UK. Jobs would be lost and food production would become extremely difficult, resulting in shortages of some food items and a complete disappearance of others, creating a return to the food queues we are all familiar with from all previous experiments in Communism
That will help with controlling peoples weight though

And what would be the point in subsidies for public transport? If cars can't get down the roads, what chance do buses have?

Meanwhile, the manufacturers of processed food high in sugar, salt and fat would face advertising bans and punitive taxes. (If food manufacturers want to dump prematurely sick patients on the NHS, we will say, they can damn well pay for the privilege.)

Blame Big Food. Nobody has ever become unwell from eating food that the manufacturers forced them to eat. We make choices on what we eat, but not only does this cretin want to remove any choice in our lives, he also wants to tax the companies that produce the food we eat, out of existence

More food queues, more food poverty and more weight loss. At this rate, the NHS might not have to worry about treating fat people, but it's going to have a very mal-nourished nation to deal with

It may seem a less practical measure but I would hope to see a vigorous challenge to the paradox of our culture’s celebration of thinness and athleticism in an overweight world. The idealisation of film stars and athletes raises impossible expectations. Because 99% of people do not have the genes – or the time and money for training – to even think of imitating them, we simply don’t try.

Now it just becomes baffling. First he wants to change the very fabric of society in order to prevent people from putting on weight, then he goes on to say that we should not look up to people who haven't put on weight. WTF? Maybe famous people are the wrong kind of people?

The above may sound utopian or dystopian, according to your point of view, but more radical ideas are circulating

My point of view is that this is beyond dystopian. I believe whole heartedly in free speech and the freedom to come up with any crackpot ideas you want, but just as vehemently, I believe that anyone who actually tried to put any of the above into practise, should be given life in prison without parole. Such a person would simply be too dangerous to be allowed to remain in society

And the idea that other people are proposing more radical ideas, does not make any of this right in any way

He then goes on to spout the usual soundbites you expect from an anti-obesity article; Big Macs, Obesegenic Environment, Ultra Processed Food, Sugary Drinks, Energy Dense, cheap calories, smoking etc.

I can feel the force of the objections. When we imagine a healthier future we are also imagining a more authoritarian state. Individual choice will be constrained and wisdom of the crowd rejected

Is it worth it, just to be a bit healthier? Do we reject every principle of freedom, just to save the NHS some money?

Of course not. Life is all about choice. It's what makes us who we are. Some people make bad choices, but most don't. A few bad choices should not be tackled by full on collectivism and the re-introduction of a failed and dangerous philosophy that has already taught us all the lessons of history we need to know

The saddest and most annoying thing is, in a hundred years time, after a hundred million more deaths, people like this will be calling for more of the same

And this time, it will be 'proper Communism'