The Nanny State rules!

The Times reports that an increasing number of British MPs support a total ban on smacking.

I have no interest in debating the rights and wrongs of smacking, I'm not even sure that I approve of it, but that doesn't mean that I believe in banning it. And that's the difference between Europe and America. Whilst US politicians believe in leaving people to their own devices (smacking is legal in all 50 States), European legislators have an innate distrust in people's ability to take care of themselves (or their children) without the government supervising them. That's why Europe is often referred to as a "Nanny State".

As Mark Steyn once put it: The US Constitution begins with the words "We the people..." The starting point for the EU constitution is "We know better than the people".