Archive for the 'The Nanny State' Category

Drink up Lads

November 9th, 2011

Last Friday there was an article in the Irish Times.

‘Dirt cheap’ alcohol linked to suicides in youth

I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time as it was fairly typical of the kind of scaremongering that goes around these days.  I mean to say – “dirt cheap”?  For fuck’s sake!  Anyone in this country who goes for a few pints is very rapidly going to find his wallet emptied.

And what’s all this about suicides? I know the suicide rate has increased alarmingly over the past couple of years but I would hazard a guess that unemployment, debt, house repossessions and the rest have a certain bearing?

Then I noticed a paragraph –

Ms Shortall said that, in many cases, young people were not able to handle the amount of drink they could now afford and that there was “an onus” on the Government to address the problem.

Aha!  Here we go.  The Bully State is moving in on alcohol?

She expected the group to make recommendations on pricing and availability which would then be examined by the Government. “We’re looking at the question of minimum pricing to remove that dirt cheap element from the market,” she said.

There was one whisper from the voice of reason -

Kathryn D’Arcy, director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, said alcohol consumption was on the decline in the State over the last decade but that it would support all evidence-based proposals to address misuse.

Sorry, Kathryn but you should know by now that “evidence based” means a rake of biased junk ‘science’.

But one swallow does not a summer make, as they say so I let it pass.

-oOo-

On Tuesday however, the screws were tightened a bit.

Taoiseach vows to tackle availability of cheap alcohol

This was more or less a regurgitation of Friday’s piece but the language had become that bit more hysterical.

Alcohol has gone from “dirt cheap” to “exceptionally cheap”.  Wow!  “Huge quantities of cheap alcohol are being consumed.”  Fuck!  The country must be swimming in the stuff.  “The statistics are stark.”  Hah!  In a Bully State, the statistics are always stark.

There were a couple of lines that did bring a cynical smile to the face though –

“Furthermore, one in four deaths in young men is due to alcohol, compared with one in 12 due to cancers and one in 25 due to circulatory disease”

Here it is folks.  If a Bully State wants to control you they try to terrify you with the prospect of cancer and heart disease.  Where have I heard this before?

“overindulgence in alcohol was the biggest social problem facing Ireland today.”

Damn!  And here was I thinking that it was poverty and unemployment or even smoking and obesity.  Just shows how wrong I can be?

-oOo-

Coincidentally [my arse] another item appeared on Tuesday.

Surge in alcohol abuse reported

Now this one was the “science” bit.  Just in case we are not scared by the politicians’ rhetoric, they start firing scary statistics at us.

Of course this piece introduces the poor innocent children.  These poor little waifs who are so hard done by with their errant parents.

over half a million children are living with adults who engage regularly in hazardous drinking.

What the fuck is hazardous drinking?  Do the adults insist on lowering their pints while sitting on a narrow ledge on a tall cliff?

“This equate [sic] to 587,000 children – over half of whom are under 15 years of age – being exposed to risk from parental hazardous drinking.”

Bloody hell!  There can’t be a sober house in the land.

Of course the figures don’t bear close examination but that doesn’t matter.  The scary stuff is out there now and everyone is quaking in their [alcohol filled] boots.

-oOo-

Is it a mere coincidence that we have a budget in the next few weeks?  Do I see an obvious connection?

Let’s make some predictions for the budget and beyond.

  • A big hike in excise duty.
  • Minimum pricing.
  • Graphic [Photoshopped] images on all bottles.
  • A massive clampdown on advertising.
  • Restrictions on where alcohol can be consumed.
  • Talk of “secondhand  alcoholism”.

Need I go on?

You know the routine.

Kicking the can

October 27th, 2011

A few days ago I came across another ‘study’.

“Two fizzy drinks a week can make youngsters more violent”

There are several things that strike me about this ‘study’.

For a start it is patently a load of utter bollox.  I have known a lot of fizzy drink drinkers in my time, and have joined their ranks and consumed more than my fair share many times.  Yet not one [including myself] has suddenly become violent.  They go so far as to state that “close to half of teenagers who drank 14 or more cans of soft drinks a week carried a gun or knife.”  That is so patently absurd as to be laughable.  They might as well say that half of all left-handed people will turn out to be serial rapists.  It is utter nonsense, yet it is emanating from “experts”.

The sad thing about this “study” is that a great many people will actually believe it.  They will scan the article and gasp in horror.  Without giving it any further thought, they will accept it as fact because experts in a university have said so and therefore it must be true.  They next time they see some kid slurping out of a can of Coca Cola, they will recoil in horror, convinced they are about to be shot or stabbed.  They will avoid the drinks aisles in the supermarkets and disinherit their own children if they ever so much as look at a can of Fanta.

What made them do this “study” I ask?  The answer is simple.  This is yet another link in the chain towards demonising sugar in the great anti-obesity fight.  We are going to see a hell of a lot more of these “studies” in the near future, each one producing more ridiculous scares than the previous one.  What’s the betting that there will be “proof” that sitting near a fizzy drink drinker will increase your chances of dying from cancer a hundredfold?  How soon will we hear all about third hand obesity [Don’t ask me what it is – it hasn’t been invented yet]?

Of course, now that it has appeared in print, it is equally cast in stone.  The science is proven.  There is no such thing as a safe level of sugar.  A person can suffer a heart attack just from watching a can of fizzy orange for more than thirty seconds.  Even seeing a can on a shelf in a shop will cause 50% of people to rush out and buy a gun.

Do you think I am exaggerating?

Do you think I am being sarcastic?

Hah!

Just look at the unbelievable claims they make about tobacco.

It’s starting all over again.

The Seven Steps

October 20th, 2011

Those bastards in the Department of Health are at it again.

Their latest shimmy is to propose a tax on sugary drinks.

What I find so boring about this is its predictability.

Step 1: Hold an advertising campaign to frighten the bejeezus out of everyone.

Step 2: Start talking about epidemics.

Step 3: Mention [frequently] heart attacks and cancer.

Step 4: Turn the rest of the population against the proposed victims

Step 5: Introduce a law which only affects a tiny minority.

Step 6: Extend the laws one step at a time until it affects virtually everybody.

Step 7: Move on to the next unfortunate batch of victims.

Step one has already kicked in.  We are being subjected to a whingey advertising campaign that suggests that we are too fat if our waist measurement is above a particular figure.  This is patent bollox because there is no mention of height.  A three foot midget with a waist of 36” may have a problem, but a seven foot bloke would be positively svelte.  That doesn’t matter to them though as it is not the facts they are promoting – it’s the fear.  They want us to self diagnose ourselves as being obese, based on an arbitrary number.

Incidentally, I have noticed the same advertisement appearing on the foreign TV channels [Channel 4 or ITV], so this is not an Irish issue.  Oh no.  This is the bastards in Brussels at work again.

Step two has been going on for a while too.  Never talk about widespread obesity when you can talk about an epidemic.  The word ‘epidemic’ conjures up images of carts of bodies being wheeled through the streets while we all huddle under our beds in fear.  The fact that there is no ‘epidemic’ [obesity is on the decline] and that the word is defined as “The occurrence of more cases of a disease than would be expected in a community or region during a given time period” where an excess of body fat can hardly be classed as a disease, is apparently irrelevant.

Step three is just gaining momentum here.  Up ‘til now only smoking caused heart attacks and cancer.  Now they are including obesity and alcohol.  Suddenly smoking is not the unique killer they claimed it was, and now everyone is under threat.

Step four is the really clever one.  They know damn well that the majority don’t give a flying fuck about obese people, so they have to get everyone on board to ‘denormalise’ the concept of a spreading waistline.  Here they introduce the concept of ‘second hand obesity’, no matter how ludicrous that concept is.  They are already producing ‘studies’ which ‘prove’ that obesity is somehow communicable.  They want us to fear the overweight in order to have us clamouring for legislation.

Step five is now on the table.  Let’s tax sugar.  Fair enough you might say [if you’re a fucking sheep], but next it will be fats, then salt, then spices, then a whole clatter of things until tofu flavoured with vitamin pills and health food supplements is the only untaxed food left.  By then though, it’s too late as the gubmint can’t backtrack – it would be ‘giving out the wrong signals’.

Step six and seven have yet to happen, but they are coming down the line.  Mark my words.

How do I know all this?

Simple.

Ask any smoker.

No more boobies and willies

October 11th, 2011

I see they are introducing Interweb censorship in the UK.

It’s only right and proper, as we all know that children must never ever see images of boobies or willies.  They are disgusting unnatural things and their sole function is to sully young people’s minds. We are better off without them.

Of course the censorship will have to extend to profanities too.  We can’t have our pure and innocent children calling us motherfuckers and cunts now, can we?

Naturally any mention or even a hint of a mention of cigarettes is out.  We all know that the word alone is sufficient to cause a massive coronary even in the youngest of the young, and even if they survive that, the word will inflict a lifetime’s addiction on them.

And what about seditious writings?  We all know [in fact the science is proven] that seditious writings lead to anarchy and we can’t have our children growing up thinking that politicians are not wonderful people who only have our interests at heart.  Personally I think everything on the Interweb should be banned apart from YouTube videos of Teletubby programmes.

I have only one thing to say on this…..

I would like to thank all my UK readers and commentators.  It’s been great chatting with you all.

Somehow I think I am soon to vanish off your screens.

Heh!

EU outlaws fun

October 10th, 2011

There are times when I honestly wonder if I am dreaming things.

I had one of those moments this evening when I read the following [with thanks to Brianf for spotting it]  -

Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules

They have to be joking?

But apparently not.

The fucking EU with its Nanny State mentality is doing its best to ruin any sort of fun.  Obviously there isn’t a parent in the land that is capable of using a bit of common sense.  Children are apparently dropping like flies, choking to death on balloons, whistles and teddy bears’ eyes, and we never even noticed.

What’s next?  Are they going to ban gardens, just in case a child chokes on a pebble?  Are they going to outlaw anything smaller than an inch in diameter in case a child shoves it up his or her nose?

I really am speechless.

It has gone so far beyond a joke that it really is frightening me.

When is this utter madness going to stop?

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