Silence is golden?

Get ready for the next ‘nanny State’ campaign, a move to ban muzak in public places. Everyone agrees that 99 per cent of the stuff played in lifts and lobbies is garbage, but it’s hardly as offensive as one British Parliamentarian claims.

Robert Key likened piped muzak to other forms of pollution – only worse. It causes, he said, “raised blood pressure, higher cholesterol levels and increased muscle tension”.

He is proposing to ban muzak in doctors’ surgeries, bus and railway stations airports and any public place – because he believes silence is better.