Give me strength!One of Nanny's chums, associated with the butchers' profession, is whinging on about booze again.
This time the "big threat" to our health comes from normal sized bottles of wine. Evidently, according to Trish Groves (Deputy Editor of The British Medical Journal) we are all too stupid and weak to be trusted with a whole bottle of wine.
In her view this is too tempting for us; when we open it, we are likely to drink the whole bottle.
Her solution?
Make supermarkets etc sell half bottles instead.
Ms Groves said:
"It's all too tempting to finish the bottle there and then to avoid waste.
Coupled with the news that wine is getting stronger, it's no wonder Britain's middle classes are getting wasted."
-Dare I suggest that the urge to down a whole bottle, once it is opened, is hers?
-Is she in fact speaking for herself here?
-Is it possible that the person she is trying to protect from "hazardous" middle class drinking is herself?
She went on to say:
"My local supermarket has row upon row of good looking wines in 75cl bottles - but it offers only three wines in half-bottles, hides them with the dessert wines that nobody drinks, and bumps up the prices prohibitively."
Well, I will agree with one point, let's push for booze to be cheaper!
OK, here's why she is talking bollocks:
- Some years ago I was on the morning Korean Air flight from Seoul to Tokyo, and partook of a particularly fine English breakfast whilst on board; eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns etc ...the full monty!
To accompany this fine repast, I had a bottle of red wine. Now the airline, as all airlines do, served the wine in those itty bitty bottles (I think they are a third of a bottle?). Needless to say, one itty bitty bottle was not enough to do justice to this fine repast, I needed had to have at least two more before feeling sated.
Therefore, as this scientific research proves, small bottles in fact encourage you to drink more! - People have free will and are able, if they wish, to say no; it is not obligatory to drink an entire bottle of wine once it is opened. Nanny and her chums should stop trying to label us as weak willed morons, unable to control and manage our own lives.
- The butchers' profession, and indeed the world of journalism, is inhabited by a statistically significant number of people who are overweight, smokers, drinkers and substance abusers. I do not think that they are in a position to give the rest of us advice as to what we should or should not eat, drink or smoke.
- Bottles of wine have corks, they can be replaced once opened. May I suggest that Ms Groves puts a cork in it!
So if I choose to open a bottle of plonk with a view to -- enervating the creative spirits/offsetting the boredom of waiting for water to boil -- whilst I am preparing food and find that I have imbibed more than half a bottle I am risking my health.
ReplyDeleteBut if I have two bottles I might drink two once the second was open, thus creating more packaging and transportation waste.
And if I do consume an entire bottle one night and then nothing for several days, or even weeks perhaps, does that still make me a bad health risk?
And as a matter of interest what is her weasel phrase about
"Coupled with the news that wine is getting stronger, it's no wonder Britain's middle classes are getting wasted."
What 'news'? I thought wine had always come in different alcoholic strengths just like beer and spirits. Does she know something I don't? Have wines been mislabeled for many years?
And IF, as she claims, the British Middle classes are getting wasted - which I doubt in terms of the way she implies such a broad categorisation - it would not surprise me one bit. Being squeezed from above and below by our misanthropic government and stupified by the media is enough to drive anyone to drink.
Perhaps Ms. Groves could persuade Nanny to develop an alternative, as foreseen by Aldous Huxley in 'Brave New World'.
Even the name of it - Soma - seems appropriate.
A bigger danger surely is for people to continue to believe that 'official' mouthpieces like the BMJ are still impartial in the information they publish and the advice they provide. As with so many organisations these days their independence from Nanny's influence cannot be guaranteed for even the simplest things.
does she not notice screw top wine for sale? does she down cola in two litre sessions cos she can't just can't stop?
ReplyDeleteAnon:
ReplyDeleteI agree, I personally feel it would be more harmful to drink 75cls of Cola than wine.
Grant:
All the state funded organisations are not independent, take the BBC for example, they were told in no uncertain terms during the fallout of the Dr Kelly affair, if you want to keep being funded, do as you are told.
All the research on the new religion of climate change is funded on the basis you will agree with Nanny's policy if you wish to be funded.
When the government "took over" the national lottery funding awards, they only provide funding if it meets their pet groups requirements. Look at the RNLI as a prime example.....Refused a grant because they do not rescue enough ethnic people.
I’ve a couple of friends married to members of the butchers' profession and, while it can't be easy having to listen to people's problems all day long, if I drank as much as them I'd be preparing for an early grave.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago I had a run in with my own GP. It was an ailment that wouldn't go away and after 11 months things had become so bad that - contrary to my natural instinct - I went to see a doctor.
It turned out to require a trivial remedy with non-prescription medicine, however, I was amazed at how old my doctor looked. When I'd seen him a few years earlier, he was a typical, trendy, go-getting, arrogant, new-graduate GP. I couldn't believe it was the same guy. He looked like Sebastian in Blade Runner, aging at twice the rate of everyone else. I assumed he was on full bottles rather than half bottles.
Tonk wrote
ReplyDelete"All the state funded organisations are not independent, take the BBC for example, they were told in no uncertain terms during the fallout of the Dr Kelly affair, if you want to keep being funded, do as you are told."
Just so.
But also consider the many organisations which, ostensibly, have nothing whatsoever to do with the government, perhaps so termed NGO's and perhaps just plain old long establish charities, that now seem to be run by people with a clear political motivation the lies somewhere to the totalitarian sides of Nanny.
I no longer try to differentiate between genuine charities and Nanny's appointees among the large organisations. The smaller ones struggling for funds are probably genuine.
The small ones that appear to be 2 people, a dog an not worried about funds are likely to be simply convenient alternative 'names' for Nanny to deploy to make public statements when she need breadth of comment.
It's amazing how the people that run these organisations seem to move around and create careers without doing much that is genuinely useful.
Anom,
ReplyDeletere:
"I’ve a couple of friends married to members of the butchers' profession and, while it can't be easy having to listen to people's problems all day long, if I drank as much as them I'd be preparing for an early grave."
That's nothing, a few years ago a friend of the family was having a lot of trouble with his doctor.
The doctor failed to diagnose diabetes.
It transpired that the doctor was a cocaine addict.
Ken's scientific experiment with the small wine bottles replicates one I carried out as as impecunious student.
ReplyDeleteIn an attempt to drink a bit less and spend a bit less money I decided to drink halves rather than pints one evening.
That evening ended with me being in one of the greatest states of intoxication I've ever been in through beer. (But I've got a great 'pissed on brandy' story with an Everest of a hangover at the end.)
I learned that lesson ( and contributed to science) myself; smaller drinks do not necessarily lead to sobriety.
Lessons learned oneself are much more memorable than any of Nanny's imposed restrictions.
Kevyn Bodman
She complains about the prohibitive prices of half bottles. But surely the corollary of selling more halves is to put the price up as well, to make drinking even less attractive that this stinking government has made it already? In short Prohibition is what she is after.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Trisha but when I open a bottle of wine I tend to share it with whoever I am dining with. I always assumed this was the way wine was normally drunk. Does Tricia have no friends?
ReplyDelete