tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post6148887735659967877..comments2024-01-01T16:01:35.711+00:00Comments on Dick Puddlecote: A Valiant Attempt At Curtailing Health DictatorshipDick Puddlecotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01481866882188932892noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-27413812472356942172015-02-15T12:49:27.490+00:002015-02-15T12:49:27.490+00:00If only the rest of the grasping bastards in the M...If only the rest of the grasping bastards in the Mother of Parliaments knew just how popular these mavericks who actually speak out for the rights of us little folk were maybe a fee more would do the same! I have never met anyone, whether they be as libertarian as me or as radical socialist as some of my friends, who say 'we need the government in our personal lives in order to save us from ourselves!' It simply doesn't happen. I wish I could vote for Jake, but sadly I live in Hillsbrough, which means I get to vote in the safest Labour seat in the country, so I get to have absolutely no say about who will be David Blunkett's replacement Labour MP...Starship Fighternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-29903519637229529842015-02-14T11:12:58.927+00:002015-02-14T11:12:58.927+00:00And I hope we remain as subjects of Her Majesty an...And I hope we remain as subjects of Her Majesty and later His Majesty for a very long time! God forbid we are EVER citizens of the current type of corrupt government we have now!truckerlynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-72880900260614566542015-02-14T11:04:42.886+00:002015-02-14T11:04:42.886+00:00Was not aware that there was a ban on smoking in c...Was not aware that there was a ban on smoking in cars, yet!truckerlynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-83353509136087762992015-02-14T10:59:35.032+00:002015-02-14T10:59:35.032+00:00Then again, there are always the everyday risks th...Then again, there are always the everyday risks that can never be avoided. As with the HRT piece by Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 yesterday, it is the quality of life today that is important as anyone of us may not be here tomorrow! There is little point in worrying about the future, although I do agree that it is prudent to make provision for pensions that would at least benefit a loved one when you are gone. This provision would be what you can afford without detracting from your quality of life.<br /><br /><br />The main problem today, and Jacob covers it and understands it well, is the state nannying that interferes with peoples' personal choices. As we are all different due to our individual genetics then what is bad for one is not necessarily bad for another. I am also a firm believer in Fate and that when your time is up, it is up no matter what you do.<br /><br /><br />I applaud Jacob for his insight and his openness as well as his courage to challenge the less intelligent and morally challenged in government.truckerlynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-26452097307252720622015-02-14T10:28:02.238+00:002015-02-14T10:28:02.238+00:00R-M refers to us as "subjects of Her Majesty&...R-M refers to us as "subjects of Her Majesty" when, more often than not, we're referred to as citizens. I don't think this is mere pedantry on the part of R-M: I think the distinction informs the legitimate limit of government control over our lives - we are, to put it crudely, as subjects "accountable" not to HMG but to the sovereign. HMG is merely there to deal with issues that are best dealt with at the collective rather than the individual level.Jaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-49904978316617010862015-02-14T06:09:49.716+00:002015-02-14T06:09:49.716+00:00Meanwhile, there's been a trend where those ap...Meanwhile, there's been a trend where those appointed for their "expertise" have been the vile prodnoses pushing for things like bans on smoking in cars (which we now have). Recruiting Lords and Ladies from the ranks of the contemporary social elites is far more damaging than hereditary. You know with the latter you're more likely to get some diversity of opinion rather than the modern kind of diversity, of skin colour or genitalia.V Halenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-91503304085085046022015-02-14T02:34:19.833+00:002015-02-14T02:34:19.833+00:00"Needless to say, I expect the amendment is d...<i> "Needless to say, I expect the amendment is doomed to fail ... </i>"<br />I don't know enough about the Parliamentary process to say with 100% certainty, but from the look of the vote at the bottom of this item, it was voted for by eight votes to four. From a (very quick) search on t'internet, it looks as if this means that the amendment goes into the wording of the Bill in spite of Gwynne's mealy-mouthed arguments, and can only be changed now if the Lords decide to take it out or re-word it. And although the Lords have let us down quite a few times in the past, they do still come up with the goods from time to time (usually more often than the Commons do) by challenging sneaky laws such as this one. So, fingers crossed. It'll be an interesting one to watch, for sure.Jaxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-88939888369272418572015-02-14T01:19:59.176+00:002015-02-14T01:19:59.176+00:00Odd because it's counter-intuitive - you'd...<i>Odd because it's counter-intuitive - you'd think that those not having to seek election would be more predisposed to be dictatorial, not less.</i><br /><br />Dunno about that, DP. I think the fact that they had no need nor desire for any political or financial reward allowed them to view business that was brought before them with a great deal of objectivity; certainly more so than those populating the Commons. They attended the HoL out of a sense of duty to their country, not to further any personal agendas. In fact they were in a position to be above politics - they had no need to enter the political fray at all. And therein lay their strength.nisakimannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-10247893222275079682015-02-13T21:41:00.849+00:002015-02-13T21:41:00.849+00:002.
The current antismoking onslaught involves the ...2.<br />The current antismoking onslaught involves the typical eugenics “personnel” – physicians, biologists, pharmacologists, statisticians,<br />and, more recently, behaviorists. It involves the same physicalism/materialism (biological reductionism) that produces a perverse, sterile definition of health stripped of the art, detail, and humanity of living. It involves the same reliance on flimsy population-level statistics (lifestyle epidemiology) that were pioneered by eugenicists early last century for population control. It revolves around “prevention”, the cornerstone of the eugenics framework. There is the same utter obsession with longevity for its own sake. It involves the same constant call for a “healthier” or “better” society. It involves the same primacy of the medical establishment and social-engineering intent where all should be coerced to abide by this superficial, “medicalized” framework, i.e. medical imperialism. It involves the same denormalization and mass propaganda techniques, a constant playing on the primal fear of disease and death, to achieve social-engineering goals.<br /><br /> We can also see that the social engineering is extending beyond tobacco to alcohol, diet, and physical exercise – that’s the behavioral dimension of eugenics.<br /><br /> BTW Even with the eugenics disaster in Germany, the first directorship of the newly-created (late-1940s) World Health Organization was given to the eugenicist, Brock Chisholm. The first directorship of UNESCO was given to the high-profile eugenicist, Julian Huxley.What the....noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-70878956915722066852015-02-13T21:28:23.990+00:002015-02-13T21:28:23.990+00:00This social engineering coming from medically-mono...This social engineering coming from medically-monopolized Public Health is neo-eugenics.<br /><br /> Eugenics didn’t come and end with Nazism. Eugenics was popularized in America. Hitler and the Germans were students of American eugenics. Some insight into the connection between American eugenics - California<br />in particular - and German eugenics.<br />http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/09/ING9C2QSKB1.DTL<br /><br /> Eugenics is notorious for its racial/breeding/heredity dimension. Less well known is that it also has a behavioral dimension – anti-tobacco/alcohol (negative eugenics – viewed as body poisons), dietary prescriptions/proscriptions, physical exercise. [find a eugenics text at a uni library. It will typically have sections on anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol]<br />Eugenics reduced all to the physical. Health was perversely reduced to a<br />physical, absence-of-disease phenomenon (biological reductionism). Eugenics was embraced/funded by the mega-wealthy (e.g., Rockefeller, Ford, Harriman, Carnegie) and the educated classes. There were few critics of eugenics at the time. The eugenics "promise" was the eradication of poverty, crime, and disease. It did no such thing. It brought out the worst in people – racism, bigotry, cruelty, brutality.<br /><br /> Post-WWII, the eugenics issue was never resolved in America. The greatest concentration of eugenicists was in America. Eugenicists didn’t just disappear or change their philosophy. They simply stopped using the “E”[ugenics] word. In the 1970s there was another emergence of an obsession-with-physical-health movement. Unfamiliar with eugenics, the<br />movement was referred to as “healthism”. Healthism is actually the hygienism of eugenics. Healthism is the behavioral dimension of eugenics by another name.What the....noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-62899832177411735782015-02-13T18:11:09.161+00:002015-02-13T18:11:09.161+00:00Agree. It's odd that over the centuries, it ha...Agree. It's odd that over the centuries, it has been the Lords who have often watered down the juvenile excesses of the Commons. Odd because it's counter-intuitive - you'd think that those not having to seek election would be <i>more</i> predisposed to be dictatorial, not less.Dick_Puddlecotenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-63798477338561689672015-02-13T18:06:21.716+00:002015-02-13T18:06:21.716+00:00Yes it's sad that these sensible views are alm...Yes it's sad that these sensible views are almost exclusively back bench ones (though I think some front benchers harbour them but self-censor for the sake of their careers). <br /><br />If you enjoyed J R-M's rhetoric, <a href="http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/nanny-bashing.html" rel="nofollow">here's something similar</a> from this blog's esteemed mascot/knight from 2010.Dick_Puddlecotenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-1001627661906729432015-02-13T18:02:49.496+00:002015-02-13T18:02:49.496+00:00That is, indeed, a salient question. From our expe...That is, indeed, a salient question. From our experiences of DH civil servants, I'd have thought they'd have had a lot to do with it.Dick_Puddlecotenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-45259184229701838782015-02-13T17:41:04.992+00:002015-02-13T17:41:04.992+00:00Incredibly eloquent and always entertaining, he re...<i>Incredibly eloquent and always entertaining, he revels in being described as 'the poshest MP in Westminster'...</i><br /><br />When I was in the flush of young adulthood, I was the archetypal idealist who thought that socialism was the answer to the world's problems, and that institutions like the House of Lords was an anachronistic irrelevance populated by a bunch of rich bastards who didn't have a clue and who should be taken out of the equation and their wealth redistributed. <br /><br />Needless to say, it didn't take long before I hit that "I used to be a socialist, but then I got mugged by reality" watershed. <br /><br />That partly came about because during a period of my social life in the Iate 60s/early 70s I actually met quite a few of the 'aristocracy'. or landed gentry if you prefer; a couple of whom actually had fathers who sat in the HoL. I came to realise that in actual fact, these 'aristocrats' were hard working guardians (most of them, anyway) of the estates they controlled. They understood and empathised with the workers who maintained those estates in a way that no upstart wannabe politico with a degree in PPE could ever hope to. They knew their fears, their needs, their motivations and what they aspired to, for themselves and for their kids. <br /><br />The landowners may have been frightfully 'posh', but they knew what was happening at ground level.<br /><br />So it doesn't surprise me that 'the poshest MP in Westminster' is the only one talking sense. <br /><br />When Blair and his spiteful cronies emasculated the HoL and filled it with placemen, I knew that the political scene in the UK was destined for totalitarian disaster. Without the commonsense checks that the HoL provided we were doomed, and could only look on in dismay as all the intellectual pygmies in Westminster squabbled over the reins of power with no-one to hold them to account..nisakimannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-68108521402748872782015-02-13T17:22:00.560+00:002015-02-13T17:22:00.560+00:00It is nice to hear a voice of sanity emanating fro...It is nice to hear a voice of sanity emanating from the House of Oddballs. I wonder if we will ever again see his likes on the front benches.Roger James Michael Sutherlandnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-83796028768198777792015-02-13T14:31:58.246+00:002015-02-13T14:31:58.246+00:00So who wrote the bill in the first place? As far a...So who wrote the bill in the first place? As far as I am concerned those responsible should be fired and barred from public. <br /><br /><br />Unfortunately parliament is over endowed with intellectually challenged authoritarians such as Andrew Gwynne who believe that you can "prevent people from getting ill in the first place" <br /><br /><br />In Andrew's fantasy world, people who are forcibly reprogrammed by the state to avoid certain risks live forever without a day of sickness. His stupidity, ignorance and thoughtlessness are typical of his kind. He has a degree in politics and has only ever worked in politics.Chris Oakleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-55539680554137529042015-02-13T13:57:09.454+00:002015-02-13T13:57:09.454+00:00Well, he might err on some details, but here it...Well, he might err on some details, but here it's the basic mind frame that counts. He sure would be open to convincing arguments.Norbert Zillatronhttp://nzillatron.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-77993772034943818882015-02-13T13:14:35.604+00:002015-02-13T13:14:35.604+00:00'it is a habit that can cause serious diseases...'it is a habit that can cause serious diseases—that is very well established—and no one would argue to the contrary'. Established how and by who ? And actually there are enough people arguing to the contrary, he might google the McTear case for starters. Doesn't he realize that the pattern started with smoking 60 years ago is being slowly played out in a lot of other areas - fats, sugar, salt, drinking, vaping.JLTraderhttp://jltrader.comnoreply@blogger.com