Be Excellent To Each Other

Shrug. You want a national health service and support system for the ill and disabled? Then people have to be encouraged and educated not to be fat unhealthy wasters, or the system will literally collapse under the weight.

The alternative is taking the labels off anything dangerous, unbanning any toxic ingredients, and you can wander off into the wastes to die when you get ill from it. Like in America.

Slippery slope either way isn't it? And I'm willing to put up with a wee bit of nannying to avoid the latter scenario.

Needs more trans fat.

How is that even remotely even a connected point, let alone an alternative?



Well, true, but only if you're going to be consistent. And politicians never are.



Again, that's not the alternative.



We currently have an NHS that treats fat, unhealthy smokers and drinkers and people who hurt themselves doing other voluntary things like horseriding. It appears to be working as a system at the moment.

I still don't get what's wrong with banning this especially harmful type of fat that is only really used for the convenience of the industry and not because it is preferred by customers. Nobody goes looking for stuff with trans fat in.

It's a parallel. You're saying people automatically know exactly how much of a health risk it is to eat a big mac, and make their decision accordingly. And if they don't then it's their own funeral.

In the same way, you could take the warning label off anti-freeze that says it's actually poisonous despite tasting quite nice and getting you drunk.

Because it's your choice and only stupid people wouldn't know that, right?

Personally I don't know exactly what a trans-fat is, or precisely what foods it's found in or even how it would be shown on the ingredients list.

But if it's flat-out bad for you and can be left out without much fuss, great, just do it.

In an ideal, lawyer-free world, people would have to label things less, it's true. Much of the warning labelling is due to risk of getting sued, not the risk of people not knowing that bleach is a bad thing to drink.

Of course some of it is also due to an overcautious, nannying government requiring it to be there, as well.



Me either, but I do know that greasy, fried, fast food is bad for me. I don't have to know the specifics of what trans-fats do to know that that sort of food is unheathy.



Well, yeah, maybe. But my serious worry is that behind this is a nanny knows best, finger wagging, puritanical "how dare you be unhealthy and, god forbid, enjoy anything, SO WE WILL BAN IT" mindset - which it clearly is, given the attitudes to alcohol, fatty food generally (there were mooted calorie taxes or whatever, for goodness' sake) and really anything at all which the government disapproves of. Christ, just look at their reaction to that drugs council chappy.

This is fine. But they want to ban things, see?

Great.. now I want something from McDonalds.

Also, I appear to have lost six hours last night to Arkham Asylum. Oops.

I see your point, but it just seems a bit "Bill Hicks"

I do think the motivation behind most of this stuff is genuinely to have a healthier population, and that reason alone.

In fact you could say they don't go far enough in some ways - take smoking. It's a known health risk with no benefits, so why not just ban it if they are as puritanical as you say?

So I'd say that they are actually quite pragmatic when people insist on a free choice on something they enjoy.

In the case of trans-fats, I'm not sure it's the same case. Would you be upset if you couldn't find trans-fat on the supermarket shelves? (exactly!). Would you notice any difference in the taste of a burger? I doubt it, and as a side benefit it won't kill you.
So I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

Mr Chris thinks it's a ban on Man Fat. Produced exclusively by Trannies.

The cynic in me would say that a significant part of the NHS's funding (probably) comes from duty levied on tobacco.

I daresay there's no duty levied on trans fats.

So, Hustle last night. Either it's getting more obvious, or I'm getting smarter, as I called the entire plan as soon as Ash started fiddling with the control box for the aircon.
Here, in bespoilered form, are the mistakes from last night's episode.

For my birthday meal about 3 years ago I had blood sausage starter then medium rare 24oz skirt at Meet, an Argentinian steak restaurant in Liverpool. Fucking beautiful, and the meat baby I carried for the next couple of days made me happy. Next two times I went I suffered shit service and shit meat, so I never went back. Shame.

Why aren't we going to Meet for the 'up north' meat? That's an opportunity missed. It could have been a meaty Meet meet.

Because it's in Liverpool, not Manchester. And it went shit. It might even have closed down now - the sister one they opened in the city centre died on its arse within 6 months, and is now a 24 hour booze-and-fag shop after an even briefer stint as a "£10 entry all your drinks free" club that looked terrifying. Being pun-worthy only gets you so far.

I quite like the sound of that "hunks of meat carved onto your plate at the table" place.

Seriously. Stop it.

Don't send me a text message while I'm at work, saying ‘I need to talk to you, ASAP*’, only to tell me of a rumour about a taxi driver committing suicide somewhere in the town.

For fuck's sake.


*Converted into real English.

Text her with the above.

We could just DM the link to her on Twitter

How come the spoilers have stopped working with safari - I can see the spoiler tag, my cursor changes to a little hand when over it but nothing happens after that when I click it...

/seppuku

I've already ranted at her down the phone

DB, answer below:

Did anyone see Billy Bragg on the BBC One breakfast show this morning? He's refusing to pay taxes now in protest at the RBS bonus payments. It managed to come across as more a desperate self-publicity stunt than any kind of thought-out protest and annoyed me so much it caused me to get out of bed and have a shower.

So I guess really I owe him thanks, as I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning.

Find out when she's at her busiest and phone her to tell her you've stubbed your toe.

Surely there are more worthwhile things to not pay your taxes in protest. Of. Come on Billy, you can do better.

Heh. I'll have to send her a text saying ‘We need to talk.’ beforehand, too.

Poor album sales?

Being a Brummie?

FFS. Bonus payments are taxable. Bonus payments bring in more taxes to the public purse. Bonuses help retain talent. More talent means company makes more money. Company making more money means quicker repayment of bailout funds plus increased corporation tax payments.

Moron.

Yeah, but you're one of them, Craster!

I'm still not convinced this is the case. Are these UK born, UK based people with families really going to fuck off to Hong Kong to follow the salary? Are they bollocks, and City Boy agrees with me.


HAHAHAHAH. Yeah, 's if. Tax avoidance, matey. The banks are particularly good at it. I think Barclays pays about £16.48 a year in tax, and last year it turned out on closer inspection that part of that was paid in French francs.*


*Allegedly.

I didn't know lawyers had side kicks. Do you dress him like Robin?

Er, did the branding just kill itself for anyone else?

Er, no. But they'll fuck off to a bank that isn't RBS.



This is, of course, horseshit. While there is no doubt that they make every effort to pay as little tax as possible, thanks to the efforts of your folks and the likes of Riles, they still pay massive, massive sums into the UK economy. If that wasn't the case, why would anyone give a shit about the city firms leaving London?

Um. Branding?

I wondered that too. Is it the Beex banner thing at the top of the site? I have that turned off anyway.

CSS. Fuck, I've gone all corporate.

It killed itself for me a couple of days ago, and took about 30 minutes to return. Multiple browsers, cache resets etc. so it was definitely a problem on the site's end. Weird stuff.

Oh. No, it was fine.

We are so diametrically opposed here that I'm out. Soz.

Banks aren't allowed to do tax avoidance now, either for themselves or other people. It is part of their bailout conditions, although remains to be seen how long that lasts. However, if you follow what happened in the US a few years ago, then it may actually have stopped them.

Oh, and I don't really do tax avoidance either. I'm quite boring really.

I can tell you really get outside of your comfort zone when you're posting pictures from noughties programmes. It's admirable.

I have you know I'm very up to date. I even have a cordless phone in my office:

The 'Branding' is completely fucked now.

Fucking branding. Always breaking. FUCK.

My mattress is supposed to come tomorrow.

Oooo, I could crush a grape !

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... -25630060/



Now, I always back into parking spaces UNLESS I'm at a supermarket (how am I going to get cases of beer into the back of the car?) but some fucking management cunt telling me I have to or I get some 'yellow card' punishment can fuck right off.

BP have had incredible health and safety rules for years as part of an overhaul demanded as part of some legal settlement from years ago, even in the offices. They are encouraged to grass up other workers who break the rules, and example of which being taking a coffee from the machine to your desk without a lid on the cup, or walking up stairs without using the handrail or while on a phone.

Also some people are so shit at reversing that they will have an accident just trying to obey the rules.