Nanny really does have a bee in her proverbial bonnet, when it comes to what we eat. She is obsessed by the quantity and quality of foods that we stuff into our gobs.One might almost think that she had some unfortunate experience as a child, that has turned her into this rather unpleasant and interfering analy retentive individual.
Anyhoo, Nanny's latest assault on what we eat and on what we are allowed to choose to eat comes in the form of her recently announced plans to restrict junk food TV ads, by banning junk food ads during children's TV schedules.
Nanny is trying to stop children from seeing the evil products spewed out by those most hated (in Nanny's world) institutions McDonald's, KFC etc etc.
You know, it's a funny old world, less than two centuries ago many people in the West were starving; they were on nutrition levels that resemble today's third world countries. In the modern West, we have access to cheap, high calorie food; undreamed of by our ancestors. The fact that some of us may overindulge is a matter of personal taste and personal common sense (or rather lack of common sense).
However, for Nanny to repeat the mantra that high calorie, cheap, readily available food is evil; is just plain wrong. Mankind has suffered and struggled for millennia to find cheap readily available foodstuffs, Nanny is flying in the face to logic and human history to try to "pooh pooh" what is in effect one of mankind's most worthy achievements.
Anyhoo, I digress, it seems that Nanny's plans to block children from seeing the products of these evil companies, during children's TV schedules, will come to now't.
Why?
Children don't just watch children's programmes, they also watch adult programmes such as Coronation Street. "Junk food"...let us call it what it really is cheap, affordable, high calorie foodstuffs will still be advertised ruing adult shows.
Which? says that the plans, drawn up by Nanny's chums in Ofcom, are "fundamentally flawed".
Ofcom will try to ban ads for McDonald's et al during Spongebob Squarepants, but will not ban them during eg Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Take-Away; the latter has over one million child viewers.
Additionally, the Ofcom formula for deciding where advertisements will be banned is very complex and based on the programme type plus the make-up and mix of the audience, rather than the number of children watching. A ban will only apply if the proportion of the audience under 16 is more than 20% higher than the proportion of under-16s in the UK population as a whole.
There is also some question mark over what foods are evil; after all butter, cheese and milk are high in fat. Should they be banned from children's hour?
When I was at primary school, I had a free bottle of milk everyday as part of the state's policy of encouraging milk drinking.
Now I learn that it is high in fat, should I sue the state for force feeding me milk as child?
All this at a time when Nanny has almost completed the elimination of any sort of managed physical exercise for school kids and sold off the facility that would have provided an outlet for their energy and calories. No wonder schools have problems.
ReplyDeleteThis pattern is not unique. There used to be a height and fitness requirement for police personnel. Not any more, or at least no hiegth requirement and a lower fitness level which is at entrance only as far as I can tell.
Apparently the police still pay subs for their Gym facilities even though the Gyms are mostly long gone (along with the police stations it seems). And since they only get out and about in cars they get less regular exercise, what with all the paperwork to do.
The station canteens are also mostly closed so many of them end up eating from fast food outlets ... do you see where I am heading here?
Clearly nanny's minions should introduce a ban on advertising for fast food outlets if any police personnel are likely to see them.
In fact I would recommend that FF outlets be treated like sex appliance shops and be made to cover up, as much as possible, their business identity. Can you see the slogans?
"Would you walk down the street publically enjoying a dildo? So why do you eat in public? Make street eating as unacceptable rape."
Ok, maybe it needs simplifying and translating into TXT, but you get the idea ...