Well, the Nanny Government strikes again. According to news reports, they are about to ban the advertising of so called "junk food" before the 9pm watershed. Apparently this will transform the health of the nations children overnight. Yes, thats right, by banning the heinous and pornographic images of crisps, fizzy drinks and burgers, our children will miraculously lose weight and become fitter! of course they will!
Just like banning certain books means you never get any political dissenters, banning plays stops people forming opinions on the subject matter and banning TV programmes prevents ideas and bad things influencing people. Remember what happened when they banned "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood........thats right it went to number 1 and stayed there for weeks, feeding voraciously on the oxygen of publicity the ban provided.
It is , of course utter cobblers. Initiatives like this don't make any immediate impact. Its arguable they make any long term impact. Banning ads for smoking didn't stop people from continuing or even starting. The decline of smoking came from years and years of education on its effects, using the power of fear, bans on where you could smoke, punitive taxes and eventually the momentum of peer pressure into making it an unacceptable habit unless done in complete privacy.
Like most people I enjoy the odd Pepsi, the odd Big Mac or kebab, and even an occasional packet of crisps. Are they that bad? Are they any worse than say....a homemade Steak and Ale Pie, vegetables and Chips as served in my local? Any worse than in nutritional content than some of Gordon Ramseys desserts? What do you class as junk food? How harmful is a Diet Pepsi each day for Baby if she's washing down a salad with it?
You see my point here. What children eat is down to a number of factors, such as location, age, likes and sislikes. It also comes down to parental supervision at appropriate ages, but if a 15 year old is out with friends shopping, how do you control what they eat? Do you ban under-18's from KFC's or MacDonalds? Do you make certain foods illegal? Do you ban burgers, but not steak, or ban KFC breasts but not Lidl Chicken Breasts (which may contain all sorts of growth hormones).
Its a non-argument in my view. Some food are beter for you than others, but surely education should allow people the right to choose whats best for them and their children according to their means?
And if things are so bad with our diet...how comes we're all living that much longer that the Nanny Government wants us to retire later? How comes life expectancy is growing, and still growing? Wouldn't the country be better of if we all popped our clogs earlier?
Another example of Nanny Government knowing whats best for us and legislating without reference. A load of old tripe......unless of course thats banned as well.
And don't even get me started on Crystal Meth!
Later GrocerJack
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