It's All So Predictable

Sigh.

Five out of six brewers has failed to comply with a voluntary code to carry warnings of the dangers of alcohol on drinks bottles, a Government report will say.

It really matters not how many, or how few, brewers decided to follow the code. As we have seen many times before, government guidelines will always resort to compulsory in the end.

Health ministers are now considering making the scheme compulsory.

That will be one more slice, then it's a case of consigning it to history and opening up a new front. The motivation will probably be that the mandatory labels aren't working, so there should be a more 'robust' approach.

For robust, read dictatorial.

Of course, as it's very tiring to keep pointing out, the methods used since 2002 or thereabouts - that is, gentle persuasion as opposed to irrational hyperbole - have been working perfectly well for reducing consumption in both males and females.


And as recently confirmed by Gillian Merron, the relaxed approach has also done wonders for the drive to restrict youth drinking.



So why the hysterical urgency from proper cunt Ian Gilmore?

The Royal College of Physicians said the failure by brewers to adopt the health labels was “scandalous.”

The president of the college, Professor Ian Gilmore, said: “If the Government is going to name and shame companies, it's high time they did.

“The code should be mandatory. If the industry is dragging its heels, we cannot wait another three years for them to comply.”

Who is the 'we' you refer to, Ian?

I see no mass public rising in favour of alcohol labelling. No placard wavers marching on Parliament Square. In fact, not even the odd grumble.

So, in fact, 'we' can wait as long as we damn well like. It's just the rancid, anti-social, self-righteous 'you' and your equally hideous temperance society pals who feel a burning desire to pass laws on the drinks industry.

And as 'you' shout the loudest, funded by our taxes natch, it is 'you' who the majority of the 646 retards (and I don't use that word lightly) in Westminster will listen to.

CAMRA would have ventured an opinion in defence of brewers but they were in the pub, with their equally self-interested pals, boring the living shit out of anyone in earshot.

Link Tank 13/02

This week's weird and wonderful cocktail, laced with topical Olympic and Valentine flavours.

Iceland, aided by Wikileaks, aims to become a haven for investigative journalists and leakers

At the winter olympics, only sponsor McDonalds is allowed to use the word 'burger'

Move to enforce condoms in porn rebuffed

Google refuse to bow down to Australia's internet censorship drive

Some kids have all the luck

Smoking is good for you ... shhh

Call to ban hair extensions

Letting poor people vote is dangerous

Sussex vet may like them, but he isn't the dog's bollocks

Viking frogmen chase Google's Street View car

Saudi Arabia's religious police launch annual crackdown against Valentine's Day

Third Hand Smoke Study Confirms A Menace In Your Home

Third hand smoke appeared in the news again this week and, as is customary, was comprehensively debunked in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, there are always daft idiots who believe such stunningly inept bullshit, examples being the small selection of knuckle-dragging berks highlighted by VGIF.

However, although perhaps not a primary purpose, the study did indeed conclusively prove that every home in the UK contains a dangerous menace. The BBC.

The researchers say third-hand smoke is an unappreciated health hazard and suggest a complete ban on smoking in homes and in vehicles to eliminate any risk.

Toxic particles from cigarette smoke can linger on surfaces long after the cigarette has been put out, and small children are particularly susceptible because they are likely to breathe in close proximity, or even lick and suck them, they say.

In light of the fact that they were taken in quite overwhelmingly, perhaps Comrade Beeb might publish a corrective story soon. After all, it's early days and I'm sure they are very busy, but it's what would be expected of a serious news gatherer, doncha think?

We may have a long wait, though, considering they faithfully followed the anti-smoking agenda on fictional 'third hand smoke' last year in their selective reporting of what was nothing more than a phone poll.

All this doesn't really sit well with the BBC's view of itself as a world renowned impartial news source.

In fact, it's worse than that, as their shoddy reporting goes against the BBC Trust's definition of purpose.

Claims include:

Provide international news broadcasting of the highest quality

Fail

Enhance UK audiences' awareness and understanding of international issues.

Fail

At home, BBC News aspires to remain the standard-setter for international journalism

Fail

[...] the BBC continues to be seen as the most trusted and objective international news provider.

Fail

Provide international news broadcasting of the highest quality [...] accuracy, impartiality and independence

Fail

The BBC will ensure that it recruits and retains high-calibre journalists ...

Bwahahaha. Err, fail.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may well have produced one of the most laughable scientific papers of the decade, but in so doing they have exposed a fairly hefty section of the world's MSM as gullible and lazy fools.

And the BBC falling for the scam so comprehensively merely proves that UK citizens should be more worried about the danger posed by their state news source than any imagined threat from a forced construct of a handful of seriously nutty 'scientists'.

Fatwa Fun

Doesn't this kinda defeat the object?

Airport body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslims say

Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a “fatwa” – a religious ruling – that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports.

“It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. “Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.”

If this ruling is replicated on our side of the pond, the resultant clash between the home office and the politically correct will be interesting.

Still, much ado about nothing really. It's not like any muslim is going to hide a bomb in their pants or anything, now is it?

More Healthist Fail

As mentioned recently, Danny Finkelstein understands the contradiction between constantly talking about obesity, thereby pointing out that it is normal, whilst simultaneously trying to 'denormalise' it.

He alluded to the same view again today in relation to Michelle Obama's reclassification of obesity as a threat to US national security (?!?).

Others will never get it, though. For example, I give you Lisa Markwell. Yet another arrogant, deluded fuckwit who doesn't recognise failure even when it takes her roughly up the chutney.

So the only difference between our eating habits 10 years ago and today is that now we know we're eating crap. Still doing it, just feeling guilty about it. Possibly.

Yes. All that money spunked up the wall by interfering government for no tangible benefit whatsoever. But at least our lives are more plagued by guilt, so it's not all in vain.

A new survey of the nation's eating habits reveals that, despite relentless government campaigns and draconian food labelling legislation, the numbers who slump into obesity are almost exactly the same. We're eating less wholegrain cereals and milk, and more sausages and fizzy drinks – and just about nobody is managing to get their five a day.

Time for a different strategy then, perhaps?

Of course not.

What are we – and by we I mean the adults who are on nodding terms with avocados, cous cous and blueberries – to do about it? We must do something.

Listen, you daft tart, you don't have to do anything. It's not your life and not your problem, OK?

But banning kids from having fizzy drinks won't work these days – they're on sale in most secondary schools.

Nice throwaway comment, dearie, but if that's true I'd be more than a little fucking gobsmacked. I shall be equally lackadaisical in my research (which is in keeping with the general feel of a Puddlecote red mist-o-meter rant) by stating that I reckon you are talking big hairy ones there.

If memory serves, Scotland were talking about vending machine bans on such things 5 or 6 years ago and that was before mockney fucknut Jamie Oliver got involved. If even a marginal majority of UK secondary schools still sell fizzy drinks to kids, when school meals have been ruthlessly shorn of anything with even a whiff of fat, and Ed Balls is banning fast food businesses within half a mile of a school or park, I'd be forced to consider that Hairy Moneyball isn't actually the most unremitting waste of taxpayer cash the country has ever seen, which of course, she is. Without a doubt.

So what has Lisa got to say about the endemic failure of intervention in the lifestyle choices of others?

Here's the plan. Instead of insisting that our children eat up their greens and reach for the fruit bowl before the Dunkers, we should put a premium on healthy stuff and instil a little mystique and prestige around it.

Oh, I see. More of the same, but from a different angle.

Christ al-fucking-mighty. The simple reason why telling others what to do, however disguised, is a perennial failure, is that people naturally don't respond well to being told what they should be doing. Most especially kids.

But the best is kept till last for Lisa, whose brain wheel is spinning frantically, despite the hamster obviously having long since expired.

It's a high-risk strategy, but the evidence is alarmingly in favour of changing the status quo.

WHAT FUCKING EVIDENCE?

Girls between 11 and 18 always want to appear older than they are, so why not give them the impression that the adults are having all the fun by eating exotic fruit.

No, no, no. Youngsters are shamed by their parents, they certainly don't wish to copy them. It's why the current crop aren't all listening to Duran Duran and wearing Pringle jumbers (girls) or make-up (boys).

You want to stop kids taking up smoking? Tell them their parents think it's cool. Stop them drinking? Get hammered every night and embarrass them, they'll soon get the idea.

Eating cannellini beans and kiwi fruit will have the same effect as watching our parents wolfing down kippers and suet pudding had on my generation.

Telling them what not to eat or drink has no effect because you're an 'oldie'. Just by eating it, without the lecturing, isn't shifting the emphasis one inch, it's still old people with their funny habits. And the vast majority of kids will naturally rebel against it.

It may require more effort than nagging. But we owe it to the next generation to eat more healthily ourselves, then teach them how to do it – even if it means being so uncommonly cunning that they don't realise what we're doing.

Firstly, if you owe the next generation anything, it should be a future free of nagging. Secondly, if you really want to be cunning, as you put it, Lisa, how about a great idea which has worked for thousands of years without any of the expensive fail which you are keen to perpetuate.

Let them make their own decisions in life. Allow them to grow up on their own terms, to enjoy living to the full, making their own mistakes, before they inevitably, as happens with age, turn into a grouchy old hector like you.

Carry On Scaring

Following swiftly on the heels of an excellent piece at B&D, here is the latest scaremongery from the UK's biggest advertiser.

Coming soon to a TV near you.



Recession? What recession?

Democracy In Action

I never knew that MSPs were so bound to the whims of their constituents. Apparently, according to thistle-munching arch public health bansturbator, Nicola Sturgeon, if you live in Glasgow Govan, she is obliged do anything you ask.

Nicola Sturgeon lobbied court for benefits fraudster

Alex Salmond’s number two wrote a letter of support for Abdul Rauf prior to him being sentenced for defrauding £80,000 from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

She referred to Rauf’s crimes, which include a previous conviction for stealing £60,000, as “mistakes” and appealed to the court to “consider alternatives to a custodial sentence”.

Miss Sturgeon, the Glasgow Govan MSP, admitted she knew about the fraudster’s criminal record, but claimed she was duty bound to represent her constituent.

I reckon there are more than a few Govan constituents who would like her to lobby against minimum alcohol pricing on their behalf. If you know any, just get them to write to her, as apparently she must do it. While they're at it, get them to tell her she is duty bound to ask for a fair amendment to the smoking ban, too.

Hey, if she's fine with backing proven benefit cheats, I'm sure she will be more than happy to help law-abiding taxpayers who favour self-determination and freedom of choice.

Just drop her a line at her constituency office and her wish is your command.