We have a new Health Monster. He has a name that rhymes with a very bad word and which is likely to soon get a lot of use. Do I think he will be worse than Lansley? I doubt it’s possible. Do I think he will be better? That’s not possible either.
By now he will have been contacted by Darth Arnott and given his instructions. There will be no cuts to the five-a-day, the units-per-week, the smoker-hatred, the management or admin of the NHS but there will be massive cuts to the doctors and nurses because that will show the proles who’s in charge. Darth’s master, the Emperor Pharmantine, will be watching to ensure the Profit is duly appeased.
My prediction? There will be no change.
“There will be no cuts to … the units-per-week…”
I think you’ll find there will be soon.
Don’t you recall the bollocks funded by Alcohol Research, and carried out by that bastion of ‘independent authoritative research‘ Bristol University, recently saying that drinking out of the wrong shaped glass can make you drink faster and that “something must be done – we must standardise glass shapes and remove all advertising/logos from them? For the Sake of the Children, you understand.*”
*This last part may be made up. For the moment.
I read that article. Made me laugh. Just as the ‘units limit’ is seen as a target to be exceeded by the pissheads, now they will refuse to drink from a straight glass in case it slows them down.
Those researchers need to spend some time in the real world.
As I’ve subsequently found out, it appears my prediction about standardising glass shapes and removing logos wasn’t too far from the truth – they explicitly state it in the research . (They didn’t mention children however.)
They just haven’t found a way to plausibly claim that children drink in pubs. Yet.
No need. Children are allowed (by law anyway – your landlord may vary) in pubs – they can see all that advertising…. something must be done!!
Mr Hunt is the MP with his name against the area in which I live, and I have yet to meet anyone with a good word to say about him. However, he wears a blue rosette and that’s the colour that the local drones vote for.
He knocked on my door when canvassing in 2010. One of my gripes was that despite our standing less than an hour from Waterloo station, he preferred to live in London rather than in the area. His answer (at the time as shadow secretary for a department that really shouldn’t exist) was that he was too busy running the Country to commute.
I’m with Jim Naughtie on this one….