“Think of the children!” That, in essence, is Rishi Sunak’s justification for the government’s intention to ban disposable vapes. Apparently, 9 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds are puffing away on them. That statistic supposedly warrants sweeping new state powers to regulate vape flavours, compel plain packaging, alter in-shop displays and outlaw disposable vapes across the board.

Let’s not mince words: nicotine-addled Year 7s are a prospect no society would relish. Fortifying against illegal vape sales to teenagers is justifiable. Yet you don’t have to dig deep here to see that invoking “the kids” is a pretext for universal, illiberal controls. If the paternalism was limited to teenagers, the government wouldn’t declare that “vapes should only be used by adults as a tool to quit smoking”, nor control flavours, nor ban disposables for everyone.

The context hardly supports the government’s explanation: its other big plan to prohibit tobacco sales to anyone born after January 1, 2009, means lifelong restrictions on certain adults, treating them as perpetual minors. On lifestyle issues, the Conservatives seemingly have given up on individual liberty for a sprawling, ban-happy nanny state.

Since 2010, in fact, an array of anti-smoking directives has catapulted Britain to the top of Europe’s nanny state index for tobacco regulation. Cigarette vending machines, retail displays and branding on packages have been banned. Tobacco duties, the second highest in Europe, already grossly exceed the estimated societal costs attributed to smoking.

It’s not just tobacco, however. The Conservatives have sidestepped the growing trend abroad towards legalising recreational cannabis use, amid continued drug prohibition. Even our alcohol taxes, pretty average within Europe, remain far higher than justified by the cost of alcohol-related NHS, police, criminal justice and welfare spending.

Then there’s the growing Tory micro-management of our dietary choices. Sugary drinks? Taxed. Chocolate and crisps displayed by tills and store entrances? Banned. “Junk food” ads? Soon to be outlawed before the 9pm watershed. Prohibition on junk food “buy one, get one free” promotions is still coming, having been postponed by Sunak because of high inflation.Plenty of Tories also remain keen on Henry Dimbleby’s government-commissioned National Food Strategy, which advocates sugar and salt taxes.

Putting aside the principle that grown adults should be free to consume whatever they like, two sleights-of-hand are used to embolden the economic case for this onslaught. The first is simply to ignore that most people drink, smoke, vape and eat things because they enjoy them, not because they’re addicts or ad-brainwashed zombies. The government talks as if everyone’s real, underlying preference is to live as a life-expectancy-maximising Puritan. Yet we self-evidently derive pleasure from a tasty treat, a cool pint or, if so inclined, a puff on a raspberry vape. To acknowledge only the costs of these consumption decisions without considering these private joys is policy malpractice.

The second, more common manipulation is to tot up as “costs to society” consequences that overwhelmingly accrue to the consuming individual. Most of us know that regular drinking, smoking or eating ice cream risks making us less healthy and productive. The bulk of these costs, though, are borne by us through lower wages or shorter lifespans. When headlines boom “obesity costs the UK £100bn”, realise that the vast bulk are such private costs that we willingly bear.

Vapes were one area where Britain had seemed both liberal and enlightened. E‑cigarettes were recognised by regulators as a market-led innovation helping people to quit tobacco. Now Cancer Research UK worries that the panicked ban on disposable vapes to deter teenagers from vaping might also deter smokers from quitting cigarettes, worsening their health outcomes.

Sunak is correct that protecting children from harm is a legitimate conservative goal. He’d get more support from libertarian-minded Tories if his government’s policies stopped with safeguarding minors, rather than also infantilising adults.