Manifesto for a nanny state
Thursday, January 21, 2010 I am in meetings all day (again) today, so I'll leave you with a story that appeared earlier this week. According to reports, public health experts have called on politicians to introduce 12 policies that will allegedly help improve public health.
The so-called manifesto, published by the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal Society for Public Health, which together represent 9,000 public health specialists and health related professionals, calls for a ban on smoking in cars with children. a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol sold, no junk food advertising in pre-watershed television, 20 mph limit in built up areas, a dedicated school nurse for every secondary school, 25% increase in cycle lanes and cycle racks by 2015, compulsory and standardised front-of-pack labelling for all pre-packaged food, stop the use of transfats, stop the use of transfats etc etc.
Full story HERE.
Reader Comments (8)
It seems that one can post on the site in question. Might be fun to list all the other 'health related' manifesto items that could be included. Why stop at ten? How about a children's hotline for reporting chip butties?
I think that I will have a go tomorrow.
Woopst! Should have said,'why stop at 12'.
Will all the newcomers on the Ecig thread stay onboard? Funny how the membership grew so quickly. Tried Double Glazing once, Ecigs seem like a good cold sell.
If this new dark ages ban of smoking in cars comes about, all smokers should adopt the ecig when driving with the kids on board.
And when they see a cop stick it in their gob, so that when people get fed up of the pile ups that would ensue, in the hope that it just might start changing things for the better in some way.
How in the name of god could a cop or anyone for that matter, distinguish whether it was the real thing or not, I'd like to know.
In my opinion all these new laws are being conjured up to create the 'new employment' to keep people off the dole and the streets that might end up causing mahem.
What better way to motovate a jobsworth only give him a bit of power against his easy target fellow man.
This is sensible "a dedicated school nurse for every secondary school"
The rest seems to be social engineeering. These physicians can't seem to mend people or find cures for things so they try and stop people doing things instead.
All that happens is that the number one cause changes and so further measures are required. Even if the number one cause does not change, further measures for what 'they' think causes it are suggested.
Once you get into this cycle, then just getting up in the morning becomes a hazzard that requires intervention.
Is it possible that this type of thinking is itself a problem?
I noticed that in the Conservative Health document it said that smoking related illness has increased in the past 10 years, yet smoking has declined (until recently), how does that work? All the 'experts' said reducing smoking would reduce illness.
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West2 said "I noticed that in the Conservative Health document it said that smoking related illness has increased in the past 10 years, yet smoking has declined (until recently), how does that work? All the 'experts' said reducing smoking would reduce illness."
Isn't it interesting the way these figures change, depending on what message they are trying to get across? The same occurs with the numbers of people who have died from SHS.
Unless something is being added to the cigarettes of today, like it is alledged is added to or used in counterfeit cigs, then how can smoking, which has declined so much over the past 40 years or so - until recently - be the cause of so many more deaths and illnesses? If there are more occurences of illnesses and deaths related to what was thought to be smoking, now that smoking is much rarer, then surely this must point to the fact that there is some other cause for the problem? Or am I being too logical here?
Has anyone added up all these lifestyle-induced deaths?
Assuming these diverse health lobbyists aren't actually fighting over the corpses, how often do multiple 'cause of death' listings occur?
Statistically speaking, is an overweight, alcohol-imbibing smoker three times more likely to die than to have been born?
@Karen LOL maybe I died 10 years ago and am now really in hell....