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Tuesday 23 October 2012 Nudge
Rob Lyons
Down with the Diet Police!
Tesco’s introduction of traffic-light food warnings shows how normal the nudging of the masses has become.

Thursday 6 September 2012
Tom Bailey
Fizzing with authoritarian intent
Having long been battling drugs, it now seems the British state is about to launch the sequel: the War on Dr Pepper.

Tuesday 7 August 2012
Tom Bailey
Presumed consent: nationalising our organs
There is a desperate need for organs for transplant, but taking them from the dead without consent is no solution.

Thursday 13 October 2011
Frank Furedi
We don’t need experts to teach us how to be civil
A new report calls on officialdom to ‘nudge’ the masses towards civilised behaviour. It isn’t only a patronising idea, but a dangerous one.

Tuesday 20 September 2011
Tim Black
Trying to nudge us towards decency
The Lib-Con government’s obsession with nudging suggests it sees us as mere putty to be remoulded at will.

Thursday 21 July 2011
Rob Lyons
Why the state should butt out of our personal lives
It is a sign of the times that the only debate we seem to have about nudging is ‘does it work?’ rather than ‘what gives them the right?’.

Tuesday 28 June 2011
Jan Bowman
The barbarians within the arts establishment
The drive to use art to change people’s behaviour is as contemptuous of us as it is of culture.

Thursday 12 May 2011
Rob Lyons
The Cube: welcome to your eco-prison cell
Apparently our unwillingness to live in cramped, low-energy homes reveals our psychological flaws.

Tuesday 4 January 2011
Rob Lyons
Lib-Cons: following New Labour’s diet
Andrew Lansley’s health vouchers scheme exposes the coalition’s view of the masses as unhealthy and a bit thick.

Monday 6 December 2010
Basham and Luik
Treating people like lab rats
When it comes to UK health policy, dodgy Nudge-style psychology is just as oppressive as New Labour nannying.

Wednesday 1 December 2010
Tim Black
Resist this nudge towards sobriety
The UK government’s decision to raise duty on high-strength lager in order to change our behaviour diminishes us all.

Monday 15 November 2010
Brendan O’Neill
Turning New York into a nudgocracy
City Hall is now awash with Nudge-inspired brain invaders, and they’re threatening to zap the spirit and soul from the greatest city on Earth.

Monday 1 November 2010
Brendan O’Neill
A message to the illiberal Nudge Industry: push off
The ‘politics of the brain’ is a threat to choice, freedom and democracy – which is why spiked is declaring war against it.

Wednesday 5 May 2010
Dr Michael Fitzpatrick
Public health and the obsession with behaviour
ESSAY: Recent thinking on health policy has been driven by two myths: that bad health is caused by bad habits, and that government can promote good health by changing our behaviour.

Tuesday 6 April 2010
Brendan O’Neill
Now the elite wants to colonise our brains
As the election date is announced, it’s becoming clear that the political class views the electorate as an incomprehensible, inscrutable blob.

Monday 29 December 2008
Martyn Perks
‘Nudging’: the very antithesis of choice
‘Libertarian paternalism’ represents a retreat from political debate, and the rise of a base psychological agenda that wants to make us conform on green, health and lifestyle issues.

Tuesday 17 July 2007
Rob Lyons
A 'fat tax'? Get stuffed
Rob Lyons gives a big fat finger to those who would add taxes to junk food in order to save the masses from themselves.

 

Time for a serious debate about the welfare state

Has welfarism gone too far? Is it time to trim this massive machine? And more importantly, shouldn’t it be trimmed for the *right* reasons - that is, not in order to save the state money but as a way of protecting communities from the negative impact of constant welfarist intervention?

We’ll be debating these issues at the next session of our spiked drinks events at Portcullis House in London on Monday 3 June at 6.30pm. Find out more here.



15 May 2013
St Angelina, save
us from ourselves!

14 May 2013
Remember, Fergie is for football, not for life

17 May 2013:
The Star Trek hype? It’s illogical, captain.


17 May 2013:
Don Draper: it’s time to buck your ideas up