Monday 26 March 2012

Time For Minimum Calorie Pricing, Dave?

Good Lord! Cameron kicking the gate open on minimum pricing has produced more immediate 'urgent' clamouring than even I thought possible.

Less than 24 hours on and vested interests were already calling for the same for supermarket food as well.
Campaign spokesman Charlie Powell said: "The food industry wants to be part of the solution but altogether refuses to admit that it's a big part of the problem.

"And it's to the government's disgrace that the food industry is actually helping to set government health policy. I think we should look at what's happening on the alcohol network and actually the government have decided that the way to go is actually to mandate companies in terms of their pricing."
How do you defend yourself from that, Cameron? Well, you can't. Especially seeing as you gave them the perfect answer to any protest.

Because, as you say yourself, applying a minimum price is perfectly benign.
This isn’t about stopping responsible drinking eating, adding burdens on business or some new kind of stealth tax – it’s about fast immediate action where universal change is needed.
Which is definitely needed in the case of calories, according to your grey-faced pen-pushers.
The Department of Health says England has one of Europe's highest obesity rates and that consuming too many calories is the root of the problem.
And remember this?
Ministers claim the policy will not lead to higher supermarket profits since they will be expected to put any extra profits they make towards lowering the price of other goods.
No point engaging industry then, is it Dave? Just get on with the minimum calorie pricing. It won't hurt business, it addresses a problem you have identified as urgent, and will be bloody brilliant since other foods will become cheaper.

What's not to like? Time to stop fannying around, doncha think?

There's no fool like and air-brushed, politically-inept one, eh?


23 comments:

ChrisB said...

What about salary caps for genetically modified politicians?

Jay said...

Wow.  I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. 

I dunno, isn't the easiest way to reduce caloric intake is to simply eat less? Why are we spending taxpayer money on schemes like this?  Why?  Why?

Curmudgeon said...

Starve the poor! What a brilliant idea!

lleweton said...

Who would vote for a party which declared that it intended to micro-manage every detail of an individual's private life and decision making? No-one. The zealots know this, so they have manoeuvred themselves into the Whitehall and Westminster woodwork. And - sorry if this mixes the metaphors - the elected politicians are their puppets.

Katabasis said...

FFS.

And of course Denmark led the way last year. This is just beyond belief. Why don't they just issue us with rations of Victory Gin and Victory Chocolate and be done with it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/02/denmark-fat-tax-obesity

Ancieme Regime said...

Westminster has become just another shed full of wearisome time wasters,
Forget food for a minute
These twisted hermits shake their assembled pointed hats at Alcohol,Tobacco,Salt,Sugar and so on
YET
Consider the possibility of my son marrying his sister's ex husband at the altar or Registrar office
I am definitely not of this Planet
A bit like the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and early 30s
twisted and aimless with the Medicine in the shadows.
Time for a prayer for the under 60s they are going  to need one.
 

Steve Brown said...

Who the Hell is there left to vote for? Every scum-sucking inhabitant of the Westminster bubble is start raving mad.
In the absence of any real, democratic system of governance, where the voice of the people is actually heard and acted upon, I suppose that the only other form of regime change is revolution.
But what then?

Steve Brown said...

start=stark

Mark Wadsworth said...

Sure, dinner round at his house is about 2,500 calories so that costs about £100 per calorie.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Now there's an idea. :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

We're not allowed such a choice. There was none of this nonsense in manifestos, but then I do remember there being a proposal for pubs which don't serve food being able to avoid a smoking ban back in 2005. 

That changed once they got the machinations working. Which is why anyone who believes minimum pricing - which, again, wasn't in any manifesto - will still be 40p when they come to pass the law, is bloody stupid.

I keep saying it, but we are lied to on a daily basis. 

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Only a matter of time, Katabasis. 

Dick_Puddlecote said...

It's worldwide, sadly. There are a few countries in Africa still resisting diktats from the unelected WHO, and rogues like Indonesia who are under pressure. Otherwise, that's about it for democracy, it has ceased to exist.

ChrisB said...

Dick, it may be worth an investigation into the much (un)reported fact that individuals who enter many private schools and universities are cloned and modified before being released back into society with a certificate describing the degree of modification. The top political and legal degrees assure us that all evidence of individuality, integrity and independence has been removed. Their very survival depends upon spoon feeding by approved nannies. 
You know I'm right - use your eyes and ears - the evidence is there for all to see.

Ajb7876 said...

don`t these guys ever quit?

I`m not advocating violence but someone needs to give these control freak prodnose`s  a fucking good beating.

ivandenisovich said...

Many scientists regard the WHO
is an incompetent, corrupt political entity. It is despised by people who
actually care but loved by career politicians and leaches like ASH who can use
it to undermine national sovereignty in order to further their goals. We should not be forced to pay for an organisation that fails to
protect millions from diseases like TB but finds the time to massage data on second
hand smoke in order to fit its leadership’s political objectives.
 

Michael J. McFadden said...

In a sing-song voice...

#Celery For Breakfast!#
#Celery For Lunch!#
#Celery For Dinner!#
#And Celery For Brunch!#

#We'll All Be Happy!#
#With Celery To Munch!#

- MJM

Lyn Ladds said...

My God!  When will these morons realise that the reason the UK is top of the list for binge drinking and obesity is because we are obviously the most unhappy, disillusioned, dissatisfied put upon people in Europe, if not the world!

These are the conditions that steer people towards oblivion found in binge drinking and comfort found in 'unhealthy' foods!

Start treating us as human beings who have minds and respect the fact that we do have intelligence, STOP nannying us and stomping all over us with your jackboots, allow us to live our own lives as WE see fit - taking risks and actually experiencing some enjoyment, and maybe, just maybe, some level of happiness will be restored and the need for binge drinking and comfort eating will diminish!

So long as we are being dictated to and all pleasure in life is being eroded, nothing will improve; more riots will ensue and eventually, pushed too far (and we are getting close, I fear) the Revolution will come.  It has to, at some point - if not, we may as well all give up now, buy our plot in the cemetery or crematorium and do ourselves in!

Finally, Steve Brown asked who the Hell is there left to vote for?  Answer, UKIP - they are now the only viable alternative to the 3 main parties who are so self serving and so deeply embedded in the pockets and tightly tied to the puppeteers of the likes of ASH, Big Pharma, their precious donors and the single minded, self serving consultants in the NHS, they can no longer think for themselves!

UKIP deserves a chance to show them all how to run a country Democratically.  If they fail, how worse off can we be?  Our only chance is New Blood.

What does it take to get rid of a government on the basis of No Confidence, or any other basis, for that matter?  Can we actually survive another 3 years of this bullshit?

Jay said...

Lyn, we may already be dead -- perhaps we just don't know it yet.   Anyway, riots and/or revolutions may happen, but so long as these do not happen in Greece, it should be OK (see previous blog post comments). 

Have you ever considered that the one of the problems with politics and politicians is this party system itself?  I'm not saying anything about UKIP's competency, etc.... I'm just saying that by aligning oneself with a group of people often means making personal choices that compromise your true beliefs.  This is why I do not associate myself with any party, even though my beliefs tend mostly towards libertarianism.

I can almost imagine the utter chaos that would ensue if there were no political parties.  Could a parliament even function if each person voted their conscience, belief, or the will of their constituents without regard for what others we doing? 

Lyn Ladds said...

I think I see what you are saying Jay.

In my view, a party such as UKIP would, at least for a few years, be more on the side of freedom, choice and rule with the old fashioned, what we all believed to be, Democracy.  I am not assuming that the system wouldn't perhaps get them too, in the end.

However, it is vaguely possible, that by that time the other main parties we know now, and possibly a few new ones, will reinvent themselves along the lines of freedom and choice and, you never know, rediscover the true meaning of democracy, in order to, once again, become viable.

Pie in the sky?  Maybe, but if something isn't done to rid ourselves of the plague that is upon us now with 3 parties, none of whom are fit to govern a democratic country, then death may well be preferable!

Jay said...

"[A] party [...] would, at least for a few years, be more on the
side of freedom, choice and rule with the old fashioned, what we all
believed to be, Democracy."

To be fair, isn't that exactly what people were saying about the tories a few years back? Didn't the tories say they would do all of these things if elected?  Didn't happen. They lied.  That's politics -- that's the people in politics, more to the point.  It really has become an "Us vs. Them."  We are the "Them."  And our opinions, our views, and our beliefs in freedom and civil liberties and all of that ... they count for nothing in the modern political system. 

This isn't a democracy any longer. We're fooling ourselves if we think it is anything but a "demockery." 

Anyway, Lyn, thanks for commenting on my comments.  :)

Michael J. McFadden said...

Curmudgeon wrote, "
Starve the poor! What a brilliant idea!"

Curmudgeon, it's for their own good you know.

- MJM

Lyn Ladds said...

You miss my point Jay.  UKIP have not been in power before, so would be a completely new broom, so to speak, whereas the tories had been in office before and have been a political party for many, many years, so as with all the main 3 parties, we know that what is in their manifesto and what they say in the run up to an election is a load of B's.

A new party, in my mind, would at least start out playing clean - well there is a lot better chance of that, anyway.  We have already tried the old school, we couldn't be any worse off by trying the new one - imho.