Harry Dimbleby meets the Lucas Critique

Henry Dimbleby is upset. Now that we’ve laws against sweeties at the supermarket checkout, even against end of aisle promotions, then people seem to be doing other things. That is, they’re conforming, absolutely, with the law of the land. But they’re still doing things Our ‘Arry doesn’t like, therefore they are bad people:

“Kinder find a way around bans on aisle end displays. Create an aisle end in-aisle. At children's eye level.”

This does remind us of Adrian Mole, those grand plans we all had of bending the world to our will at age 13 3/4. It also reminds us of the Lucas Critique:

The Lucas critique argues that it is naive to try to predict the effects of a change in economic policy entirely on the basis of relationships observed in historical data, especially highly aggregated historical data.

That people place the choccie bars at the checkout and people buy the bars placed at the checkout does not mean that when you ban choccie bars at the checkout then people will stop presenting or buying choccie bars. Behaviour changes to accommodate that law of the land.

This goes on and on, obviously. Cigarette taxes at nosebleed levels produce cigarette brands (“Manchester”) that no one’s ever even tried to sell in legal and taxed form. Plus, obviously, smuggling and so on. As will ever tighter restrictions on vapes.

And if that crusade against chocolate and sugar goes much further then so will reactions arrive, actions change. Which, to be honest, we’re rather looking forward to. Visions of being dragged up in front of that other great literary creation, Justice Cocklecarrot, dance in our heads. Charges of smuggling condensed milk and cocoa powder (maybe Ovaltine for the adventurous) into our underground chocco factory. And while we might dream of such take these restrictions much further and people really will start selling sweeties on street corners.

It’s simply not possible to rule a society at the level of detail these people think is appropriate. Just because we’re all endowed with free will, agency, and so we’ll do as we, not they, wish. So, please just stop.

We’d also add a little warning. No one tell them that lactose in the babbies’ feeding bags is sugar. They’ll be mandating mastectomies soon enough. Others are already, as in Ireland, insisting that Daisy needs to be shot for producing the stuff. So shhh, no giving them ideas, eh?

Unless, perhaps, this is all performance art? Not seen many scripts from Graham Linehan around recently, is he writing Harry’s stuff?