Saturday 31 December 2011

Link Tank 31/12

Get the nibbles in, it's gonna be a long night.

Taxing festive cheer - a new low

Richard Branson isn't hugely successful for nothing, you know - he understands common sense

California to vote on making condoms compulsory in porn

A musical guide to hosting a New Year's Eve party

Ron Paul's ten principles of a free society

Better England free than England sober

Lest we forget 'The Quiet Man'

Seven things we were warned to avoid in 2011

How a small, unremarkable country came to dominate the world of beermaking

Wendy's in Japan adds fois gras and truffles to its burgers

Attack of the giant shrimps


5 comments:

Scan said...

Always been a fan of Branson. And his autobiography is excellent :)

All the best for 2012.

Ivan D said...

Not sure that Branson is consistently sensible Dick. I am pretty sure that he is a bit of an anti-smoking zealot and is prepared to back some pretty stupid and illiberal ideas as a consequence. He very publicly supported the shop display /vending machine bans and he also supports plain packaging proposals.

Virgin make a point of telling passengers that e-cigs are not allowed to be used on-board so I infer that he is no pioneer when it comes to harm reduction either.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/14/branson-in-call-to-curb-cig-displays-115875-21672086/

Ian R Thorpe said...

Just looked in to say Happy New Year Dick.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Ivan D: Ah well, looks like he's swallowed the bullshit on that issue complete with wishbone. Still, his view of prohibition itself is sound, so the total failure of that policy when it is implemented might just wake him up, you never know. ;)

Ta, Ian, just posted one back to you and all who read here. Thanks for your support. :)

Anonymous said...

I don't trust Banson either because there's been incidents indicating he is very anti-smoking and until he turns around on that then I don't see him yet in a good light. I guess if I was a heroin user instead of a tobacco user, then yes, I would see him in a better light. I see him and others like him putting one man's liberty higher than another man's loss of liberty, hypocritical and pandering to one special interest of the other, not being libertarian. Banning harmless e-cigs on Virgin Airlines in particular was maybe the final straw for me. I won't like nor trust the man much until he firmly shows signs of being anti-smoking ban first. Until then he's just empty words.