I saw the headline and the words "nanny state" whirred through my mind.
I read the article and Tony Blair had already said it. "People don't want to live in a nanny state". Who would have thought that bumbling, ass licking cretin would get it so right.
Now read the article, come back and read the spoilers below. Your comments are welcome. Encouraged even. This is for everyone.
This advice has come from health experts and the new PM has yet to comment. I do have some concerns about his statement, should he make one. Can a Prime Minister such as Gordon Brown lead the government into making such decisions given that he is obviously quite partial to high fat foods? Surely he would be deemed as biased should he choose to ignore the statement and he would be doing nothing more than shooting himself in his fleshy foot if he agreed the idea was a good one. And where will the money from this tax really go? One idea is that it could be filtered into the paychecks of overweight and obese politicians in order to help them fund their unhealthy habits and overcome any financial drain that would be caused by the fat tax affecting their shopping bill...
OK, I'm stepping off my soap box... although I can see a whole lot better from up here. Fuck it, I'm staying.
How about a little education? I know, I know, Jamie Oliver tried it by going into a school and educating some of the kids and some of the dinner ladies. Subsequently he helped turn around a school canteen by removing the high fat, high salt foods from the menu but ultimately what happened? The kids brought in packed lunches - bad packed lunches supplied by their parents. This indicates that the root cause of the obesity issue may lie with parents. Parents should be educated in how to cook nutritious, fun and healthy meals. Parents should respect their child enough to want to give them the precious gift of health for the future (and I believe this includes being able to afford to do that). Parents should be educated in how to command respect from their children. These children should not be able to threaten or undermine their parents. But they're not, and they don't, and they can't and they do.
And supermarkets. Those big monstrosities that us mere mortals are ever more forced to shop in. Everthing under one roof, offering convenience for today's 'go, go, go' society. I know you're not stupid, you are aware these stores dictate what we eat. Ready meals competitively priced instead of fresh produce, too good to be true deals on English Cheddar (I avoid the Welsh), staple store cupboard items such as baked beans and tinned vegetables in the same aisle as chocolate and treats. A little more regulation is in order to ensure their product placement does not pray on the weak... Actually, I retract that statement but leave it open for you to comment on as I feel on some levels it works in favour of everything I am trying to denounce in this rant. Supermarkets do however make convenient and unhealthy meals temptingly cheap to individuals with very little time and/or money. Anything fresh, low fat, organic has a fancy price tag to act as a deterrent. Has anyone even attempted to make a decent tasting low fat cheese? No, it's all a farce to remind us how much we love the full fat stuff. Asda wants us to be fat because eventually it will take us all twice as long to tackle the weekly shop and with all that extra time spent in the aisles we're sure to chuck a few more packets of biscuits into the trolley. And I know you've seen those M&S adverts. They're the sex!
The health service. The ever failing, ever stinking, rotting, rank, corrupt and downright pathetic NHS. Our country is notorious for having one of the worst health care services in the 'Western' world. We keep poor standards of hygiene in our hospitals and leave pregnant women or the frail and old lying on trolley beds without room allocation for hours on end. Will the revenue from 'fat tax' be directly pocketed by our health service in order for them to better treat those in need? I very much doubt it. The money will be used as a deterrent at purchase level only and once spent it will be none of our goddamn business where it ends up. To clean up health and the health service time would be better spent on creating a system where level of general health and the personal measures taken to improve said health (or lack thereof) are calculated, and measures to improve, reduce or sustain those levels of health are indicated by a surtax or amendments to our monthly NI contributions. Or privatise it.
These are just initial thoughts, they are not necessarily my opinions. Think of this as the ramblings of a bored but passionate woman sat in a dirty office cubicle with nothing better to do than put the world to rights. This rant is meant to incite thought though, so challenge me, change me, enlighten me, beat me down (I beg you).
I got this nasty ziz on my nose, one of the deep ones that comes to a head on the inside. I looked like rudollf my entire stay in the south...