Thursday 23 July 2009

Looking Through Ian Gilmore's Eyes*


Proper cunt Ian Gilmore has been spouting off again. Further confirming the Devil's very accurate appraisal of him.

Professor Ian Gilmore is a mouthpiece for the government and should probably have his tongue ripped from his lying head before being hanged by his testicles in a tank full of ravenous piranas. The cunt.

Why the vitriol? Well, perhaps it has something to do with press releases such as this.

Responding today to data in Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England, 2008 that suggests the likelihood of a pupil drinking alcohol increases with the number of drinkers per household, Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians said:

“These figures show very clearly that we need to tackle teenage drinking from every possible angle. While it’s absolutely right to focus on issues of price, and illegal sales it is equally vital that parents, teachers and other role models acknowledge that their own behaviour shapes children’s attitudes towards alcohol. In a sense this cuts to the heart of what we mean when we talk about our drinking culture. If we are to encourage healthier attitudes among the young, adults need to think more carefully about the examples we set for our children.”

Welcome to a significant step in promoting the denormalisation of parental alcohol consumption. Porky Liam Donaldson invented the term 'passive drinking' to tack on the back of the anti-tobacco fantasy of passive smoking, which many of the great unthinking still believe, and now one of his minions has a firm grip on placing the concept of the alcohol version in the mind of every Sun reader and gullible fuckwit in the country.

Can you smell the faint whiff of future prohibition with regard to uncorking a Pinot Grigio in front of the kiddies yet?

The ONS study to which Gilmore refers, commissioned by the NHS to back up lardy Liam's assertion that under 15s should never drink even a small glass of wine at Christmas, runs to 219 pages. Considering its remit to prove what the fat cunt asked it to, the ONS produced a precis exactly as ordered, and Gilmore had his thinly-disguised temperance movement commentary at the ready.

It's to tackle that 'epidemic' of teen boozing, you see. Except that there isn't one. And the ONS study confirms it.


It's quite clear that there has been no change, apart from boys drinking less, since 1988, and the current overall trend is decidedly downward. Gilmore mentioned none of that.

There were a few salient points that the document did state though. And if Gilmore actually bothered to read it, for some reason he didn't see fit to include them in his one-sided judgement.

For the first time in this survey series, pupils were asked how many of the people they lived with drank alcohol; this could be parents, siblings or anyone else they lived with.

The first time the question has been asked, and Gilmore's press release only focusses on that one aspect. Hmmm.

The rest of it seems to confirm that responsible attitudes to drinking in kids tends to emanate from parents who are only mildly restrictive.

Pupils whose parents did not mind them drinking, as long as they didn’t drink too much were least likely to have been drunk in the past four weeks (50%of pupils who had drunk alcohol in the last four weeks) or to have tried to become drunk (30%). Compared with this group, pupils whose parents disapproved of their drinking but who had drunk alcohol in the last four weeks were more likely to have been drunk (66%) or to have tried to get drunk (45%).

Proper cunt Gilmore (if he read this far) would have loved to read that parents who didn't give a shit tended to have kids who are right animals, of course.

Those who answered that their parents let them drink as much as they liked were most likely both to have been drunk in the last four weeks (75%) and to have deliberately tried to get drunk in the last four weeks (59%).

Except that there are almost no parents who are actually like that.

Few pupils of any age said that their parents let them drink as much as they liked.

As comprehensively illustrated in this graph which - oh fuck me, no - Gilmore also appears to have missed.


A big, loud, percentage for a very tiny portion of those surveyed. Quite a soundbite, doncha think?

The thrust of this study, and the probable reporting of it, is fully intended to make parents believe that if they drink in front of their kids, their offspring will inevitably turn out to be raging alcoholics.

To tackle a problem which doesn't exist, righteous extremists are again using skewed data to force their will on everyone in society, and their methods are becoming more rancid by the day. Make no mistake, the denormalisation of alcohol is underway and following the same rules as the template laid down by those who don't like the smell of tobacco.

Coming just a few days after the British Beer and Pub Association talked of 52 pub closures per week, this new attack should set some alarm bells ringing. With the BBPA insisting that the smoking ban isn't a problem and that the way forward is to attract families with food, it would kinda put the kibosh on it if parents were scared into thinking that having a beer with their meal was a form of child abuse.

Hey, and BBPA, good luck with that campaign to reduce alcohol duty which Alistair Darling completely fucking ignored in April, you daft cunts. If the government are commissioning surveys to prove that just the sight of your principle product is harming kids, then I wouldn't hold my breath for a bit of respite if I were you. Perhaps you might like to rename yourself the British Cheap Restaurant Association instead.

Just two people saw this survey as a denigration of parents' attitudes in the general non-event of a binge-drinking culture which doesn't actually exist. They would be the cunt Donaldson, and Gilmore, who seems to see whatever his temperance movement paymasters want him to see. For the good of all of us, I hope he goes to Specsavers sometime soon.

But Comrade Beeb dutifully reported it anyway, complete with fake charity input. Quelle surprise.

* Brownie points to anyone who can spot the punk reference

UPDATE: Thanks to Jay in the comments who pointed out the new Think B4U Drink web-site. Doesn't that suggest that the site must have been designed before the study was even published? Stinks, huh?

UPDATE 2: Snowolf and Frosty got it. For those who didn't.




16 comments:

vincent1 said...

Dick - Nothing would surprise me anymore, along with many of the unbrainwashed people. For those who whinged about the smokers, but like the alcohol,the warning signs where there to be seen.

http://www.democracyinstitute.org/pdfs/DI%20Denormalisation%20Study.pdf
snip~
In practise, denormalisation means that the
government attempts to shame adults into
changing their behaviour. For the
government’s denormalisation campaign to
succeed these adults must be stigmatised,II
that is, they will be placed apart from the
rest of civilised society until and unless they
learn to behave in the approved manner.1
Denormalisation pushes gamblers, drinkers,
smokers, and the obese from being a health
hazard to being a moral hazard, nothing less
than blots on the nation’s moral landscape.


http://www.democracyinstitute.org/pdfs/DI%20Denormalisation%20Study.pdf
snip~page 25
Would we find nothing morally objectionable about such government
activity? The answer is that, whatever our views about AIDS or sexuality, we would
find such actions to be morally objectionable. For a government in a liberal
democracy, the tool for censuring either its citizens or its corporations is not
denormalisation but the criminal law. To
forget this is to forget that the twentiethcentury’s
experiments in denormalisation
ended with the gulag and the concentration camp.
Denormalisation also runs afoul of legitimacy because it represents a vast and
unacceptable instance of social engineering"

mandyv
freedom2choose.info

Michael J. McFadden said...

Of particular note, about halfway down, the graph 3.12 showing that the majority of Brit parents don't mind their kids drinking, as long as they don't overdo it, and as long as the kids are at least THIRTEEN years old while they're getting drunk!

Sheesh! I can see not absolutely grounding a kid if you found out they snuck a beer at 16 or so, but THIRTEEN??? And more than half the parents say they DON'T MIND???

Amazing. You guys live in a very different world over there!

Great column Dick!

:)
Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"

Anonymous said...

Denormalisation of smoking, then alcohol: will the eating of pork be the next denormalisation?

banned said...

For Gilmores information my parents were less than moderate drinkers, sherry for Sunday Lunch and at Xmas.
Didn't stop me and my mates regularly getting pissed up in our mid-teens. The cunt has obviously forgotten that at that age you don't want to copy your parents you want to do the exact fucking opposite.
Why did we do it ? Coz it was fun, it was a bit illegal, because it felt good and made chatting up girls easier.

Good fisking Dick, as you say, his own report spells out that there really is not much to worry about; those very few parents that "don't mind" thier young children getting drunk will probably beat them to death in any case.

Anonymous said...

Must be from Gilmore that the puppet from Newcastle University who was interviewed yesterday by Eddie Smooth on PM got his 'facts'. He quite blatantly stated that irresponsible drinking must be viewed like smoking and that smokers are now lepers. When 'respected' academics have so lost their integrity that they're prepared to spout shite, you worry.
And, of course, Steady Eddie just fed him the right lines. Why would we expect any more from Al Beeb?

BTW, Mandy, very apt quotes.

Jay

Snowolf said...

Ian don't need his eyes to see, Ian and his eyes have parted company.

Brownie points, please Dick.

Anyhow. The future.

Alcohol is dangerous, and so should be kept domestically, under licence, in a locked steel cabinet bolted to the wall.

Then somebody who is drunk will kill someone, and it will all be banned. So no-one will have alcohol. Except the army, police and criminal gangs. The British Olympic drinking team will be forced to train on Jersey, and it will be dropped as an Olympic Sport in 2012.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Sheesh! I can see not absolutely grounding a kid if you found out they snuck a beer at 16 or so, but THIRTEEN??? And more than half the parents say they DON'T MIND???

Michael, we're not talking getting shit-faced here. They could just be referring to having a half glass of wine with Sunday dinner which the parents don't mind.

The French give their kids wine regularly, yet it's not their young people shanting it up and causing a right nuisance on Greek islands. On that evidence, it would appear that irresponsible drinking in adulthood isn't necessarily linked to letting kids have a few drops every now and then.

Despite its latent bias, this report came to the very same conclusion. Yet Gilmore uses it to argue for adults not drinking in front of their kids at all.

Dick Puddlecote said...

A great big Brownie star to you, Snowolf. :-)

Man with Many Chins said...

Well, my eldest step son who is 19 now, has always had alcohol available and moderate drinking of beer and wine is part of our family life, especially at meals.

He will get drunk occasionally when out with his mates, but on the whole its very rare to see him anything other than tipsy after a night out.

So our open approach to alcohol has clearly worked....as soon as you start hiding something away it becomes interesting to teenagers.

And why dont these cunts just keep the fuck out of our lives? Fuck Off

Anonymous said...

A world without tobacco, a world
without Alcohol, without laughter,
without joy , without hope , oh
happy days.
Do I care , am I bothered, when that
grey day arrives ? At my age, I
wont be around, so my little ditty
to all the under 65s, get your
Doc Martins on and start kicking
ass or just carry on filling the
cosmos with low voltage tears.

50 a day Larry the Lamb

Mummy x said...

"Can you smell the faint whiff of future prohibition with regard to uncorking a Pinot Grigio in front of the kiddies yet?"

Why doesn't the Government actually ask the kids what they want. I dare them to knock on my door and ask my Squids if Mum should give up the peanut greegeo.

A friends (very obnoxious) 10 year daughter once told me that smoking was disgusting and that I should give up. I refrained from bitch slapping her and instead I asked her why?. She replied, for your health and your chiiiiildren (WTF!!!). I then told her to go and ask my Squids if they wanted me to give up smoking, which she did. Their reply

"Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!, Mum's really horrible and shouts a lot when she's not smoking, she must not stop, not ever".

Mouths of babes and all that.

Mummy x

Abo said...

Mummy x, didn’t you know that Peanuts can be very very dangerous to Squids with allergies? ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm just perusing the Think B4U Drink leaflet that landed through my door this morning. It's full of gems such as "Watching mum and dad relaxing with a drink or two can influence a child into considering this behaviour as 'normal'..."!!!

Does anyone remember the days when a couple might have a drink before, a bottle of wine with, and a drink after, dinner...followed by a nightcap (or two)? The leaflet, however, is evidently not aimed at 'civilised' people who have 'dinner' since its front page shows a man and his son supposedly sitting in front of the telly with a pizza and TWO small bottles of lager!!!

Here's one of the tips for cutting back on drinking: "If your partner is at home....Try doing a puzzle...or why not light some candles and try having a proper conversation."!!!!

The entire leaflet is written in the same patronising tone and designed to make light to moderate drinkers feel ashamed and guilty (not that it's any of their business if people are getting rat-arsed every evening).

The leaflet is snappily entitled, "Never Underestimate the Influence of Alcohol in the Home". How long before this lot joins forces with the fag fascists?

If you can't wait for yours to land on the mat you can go to www.alcohol-influence.com

Jay

PS Once upon a time, beofre I started reading online, I might have ben taken in by this kind of crap.

Anonymous said...

Yeah great record by the Adverts Dick, it makes me weep when i read this stuff,why oh why cant thes puritanical clueless bastards just keep the fuck out of our lives?

Michael J. McFadden said...

Just a late, but interesting note here:

Taranis said... "Denormalisation of smoking, then alcohol: will the eating of pork be the next denormalisation?"

Hey Taranis! Your crystal ball seems to be working quite well! Mind if I borrow it for the lottery?

See:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkadvice/6038473/Children-should-not-get-ham-sandwiches-in-packed-lunch-charity-says.html


Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"

Anonymous said...

Some great comments on here.
Michael, hmm crystal ball sounds about right.
Is this crap all about religion? Am I turning into a conspiracy nut errghh.

Although, good ham (not processed) has not been mentioned yet or pork chops, let's wait a week or two and see if that one creeps in as well lol. Then I am going to explode with anger, along with many others.