Vodka laced with antifreeze. Fake ham made from dyed chicken. Mozzarella comprising less than half real cheese. These and other horrors were recently exposed by trading standards officers in West Yorkshire, UK. Of the 900 foods they tested, more than a third proved to be dodgy in some way. And these results are probably far from exceptional. An official report commissioned after last year’s horsemeat scandal found that food fraud is becoming a major international problem, with criminal gangs seeing it as an easy alternative to drug or people smuggling. “Huge quantities of fake champagne come out of Spain and Italy. Five times as much manuka honey is sold worldwide as is produced.” Part of the attraction to criminals is that, with cash-strapped local authorities cutting back on food testing, there’s very little risk of detection. Some authorities no longer test at all. It’s a dangerous situation. Even in straitened times, the state needs “to spend enough to ensure that those who are swindling or poisoning us have a real fear of being found out”. (Jenni Russell, The Times, London).

Those who de-fund government departments because they don’t want to pay tax have no right to complain if their vodka is contaminated by antifreeze. Serves them right. Problem is, the rest of us, Epicureans and other more intelligent folk, positively want the government to be staffed effectively to catch the crooks and cheats, and thus save lives and the health of those around us. Tax evasion kills, and those who evade it should be heavily fined. At best, they are stupid. “Liberty” all too often can be translated as: “Get lost. I can and will do anything I want to make money”.