As I was dancing the Bolero on the roads in my crapmobile this morning, I could have sworn I heard Andy Burnham say something like "it's not the job of government to decide social norms".
You fucking what, I thought to myself? But then I wasn't listening too intently. No, what I was doing very intently, was studying the road in front of me to spot any small gaps in the black ice, towards which I might direct my almost constantly spinning wheels.
I was concentrating so much on that, that the words I heard must have jumbled up, and re-arranged themselves into something quite breathtakingly brazen. I mean, Burnham, of the Labour party which has been dictating just about every aspect of our lifestyle and behaviour for the past 12 years? The party which invented the policy of 'denormalisation' of smokers and is now using the same tactics on drinkers, foodies and motorists? For such a man to utter something so surreal would take quite some brass neck. I must have misheard.
Then I read the BBC.
A spokesperson from the Department of Health said it was "not the government's role to dictate social norms".
Speechless.
