LETTERS Regulated sex
Sir: Even by his own standards Paul Johnson's article 'Aids: words, no deeds' (The media, 6 December) was dotty and unpleasant. Mr Johnson has the remark- able ability to make a good cause appear a bad one. Thus, while I would agree that the most sensible advice the Government could give 'can be summed up in six words: chastity before marriage, fidelity within it', a way of life which incidentally is likely to make whoever follows it happier too, I am not convinced that this sort of thing is any business of the Government's, and certain- ly Mr Johnson is one of the last people likely to persuade me. When he says that `so far the Government has given not the slightest indication that it has any plans to ring down the statutory curtain on prom- iscuous sex', I, unlike him, can only applaud. It is extraordinary that Mr John- son, who has been converted, rather late in life, to believing in the virtues of free- market economics, should still see it as the business of a handful of politicians to regulate sexual morality. It's a short step from that to forbidding the expression of opinions with which they happen to dis- agree. After all pernicious opinions can be very corrupting, can't they? His linking of the Aids campaign with the impertinent Propaganda directed by politicians at our smoking and drinking habits, and his dis- approval of what he sees as its feebleness, suggest that he would be happy to circums- cribe the limits of freedom pretty closely. Where would he stop? What about intro- ducing the Inquisition? That would make people sit up and behave themselves. The Government could recruit a corps of pro- fessional informers to report on undesir- able sexual habits; would that not help to 'ring down the curtain on promiscuous sex'?
While waiting for such desirable de- velopments Mr Johnson might however refresh his mind by reading Adam Smith. There he will find a clear exposition of what is likely to be the best defence against the spread of Aids: enlightened self- interest.
Allan Massie
Thirladean House, Selkirk
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