Nanny state

Common card · No. 263263

Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice. The term likens such a government to the role that a nanny has in child rearing. An early use of the term comes from the Conservative British Member of Parliament Iain Macleod, who referred to "what I like to call the nanny state" in the 3 December 1965 edition of The Spectator. The term was popularised by the journalists Bernard Levin and Auberon Waugh, and later by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

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