Puritanism is never the answer

There is an interesting article in today's Guardian, raising the issue of the political Left and its abandonment of its 'puritan' tradition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/06/labour-moral-market-gambling-society
I am a fierce opponent of puritanism, I think it is a negative, depressing and ultimately deadening philosophy. What Hunt has one is to confuse the life-enhancing benefits of choice and social liberalism with the diktats of the market. Neither Crosland nor Jenkins would have used market freedom to justify change, as might some elements of New Labour.

However, the alternative as prescribed by Hunt would be a censorious and judgmental society based on his narrow and conservative idea of 'morality'

I trust that he will realise that this is not the sort of message which any left-liberal party should be supporting or promoting. We are all too aware of the usual moral-panics cries of those scared of change. What we should be doing is enabling proper regulation which should not be directed either by the market or by moral disapproval.