European freedom

There's a nice article in the Telegraph about the Nanny State Index. Check it out. 

 

Since launching in 2016, the Nanny State Index has recorded a net increase in paternalistic regulation across the continent. “There have been individual acts of liberalisation, for example Finland legalising e-cigarettes and Norway repealing its sugar tax,” said Snowdon. “But overall, it’s less free.”

The article rightly points out that just because the law says you can't do something doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Turkey is a case in point.

 

Of all places, Turkey comes out as Europe’s most paternalistic nation, which is a surprise to the Istanbul-based writer Lisa Morrow, who scoffs at the mention of Turkey’s smoking ban. 

“Get on an inner-city minibus and the driver will be smoking, get in a taxi and the driver will be smoking, go out at night and there will be people smoking in bars,” she tells me over Skype. “It’s a joke.”   

Morrow, a former smoker, originally from Australia, grew so tired of inhaling second-hand smoke that she launched Clean Air Dining Istanbul, a Facebook directory of non-smoking restaurants in the city. “In two years, we’ve listed just two venues,” she laughs.  

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given its majority Muslim population, Turkey comes out as the strictest nation for rules around booze. And it has outlawed e-cigarettes, although vape refills are widely available on the black market.

“It’s complicated because Turkish people sort of like having someone telling them what to do, but they don’t follow rules unless they think they are useful,” adds Morrow, author of Istanbul 50 Unsung Places.