Libertarianz health deregulation spokesman Richard McGrath reiterated his party's opposition to traditional local government monopoly on the provision of reticulated water.

"My party would also put a stop to the deliberate pollution of town water supplies with fluoride," he said. "In fact, we would lay to rest the whole concept of a town supply, period."

"As the Green Party of England and Wales rightly pointed out last year, involuntary mass-medication is an assault on individual freedom of choice. People should be allowed to choose for themselves whether they want themselves and their children to ingest fluoride.

"The best way to provide this choice would be to privatise the sale and supply of water. Currently, ratepayers in a fluoridated area are forced to pay for fluoridation whether they want it or not."

Dr McGrath said that despite the likely benefits of fluoride, it was wrong for governments and city councils to insidiously feed it to the population at large. "I took fluoride tablets as a child, I drink fluoridated water and use fluoride toothpaste, but I do so because I want to. Not because some well-meaning but patronising local body politicians, such as those on the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, say I should."

It's enough to make you vote Libertarianz!

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>