Every society does, at times, lose its mind. Here we’ve a lovely example of ours doing so right now. There are plans afoot to ban two for one, or Bogof, deals on biscuits.
There’s the obvious point that aren’t we in a lovely place? There are no serious problems to worry about and the very expensive resources of government can be directed at such trivia. Usefully we might ponder, in fact, whether we need quite so much government if this is the sort of nonsense they’re going to spend our cash upon.
But rather more importantly this just isn’t going to work:
Curbs on junk food adverts and two-for-one deals for biscuits and cakes are being drawn up in Downing Street as Theresa May prepares for a U-turn on obesity, The Times has learnt.
Nope, simply won’t work at all:
Public Health England told brands from Tesco to McDonald’s yesterday to cut calories in sandwiches and ready meals by 20 per cent as it declared that “Britain needs to go on a diet”. It reiterated the view that reducing children’s exposure to junk food advertising and ending promotional deals on unhealthy products are the two most important measures to fight child obesity.
For what is a promotional deal?
No, seriously, what is one? We might think that we can identify such but we can’t.
So, to move slightly away from biscuits and cakes and to something we’ve noted just recently about sweeties and chocco bars. Starting up any new adventure leads to, always, a certain concentration upon the outgoing expenses of a household. Thus there’s been a little examination of the shelves of Lidl and Aldi in recent times rather than just splashing the cash anywhere. At which point, something noted.
Mars produces Mars bars, Snickers, Bounty, Milky Way and so on. Think it’s Lidl which has own brand copies of each available individually and also in multipacks. The Lidly stuff is significantly cheaper, well less than half the price, of the branded items.
OK, great, that’s capitalist competition for you, Huzzah!
But this does mean that we’re about to make illegal Mars making the price of their choccos the same as the rough equivalents from Lidl on a temporary basis through discounting. But we’re not going to ban Lidl from continuing to make their versions available at less than half the price of those of Mars.
This is lunacy. It’s also entirely ineffective.
At which point what we really should be doing. Cutting government back to a size where it doesn’t have the resources to try something so damn stupid. Say, a 50% cut in all tax rates immediately should do it.
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HFE costs over £4 billion a year. If there's anywhere in government that's ripe for cutting, it's this absurd and nasty bunch.
"Cutting government back to a size where it doesn’t have the resources to try something so damn stupid. Say, a 50% cut in all tax rates immediately should do it."
BO(P)GOF?
Many politicians will be willing to co-sponsor a 50% tax rate cut. The United States just enacted one on the corporate side. This alone does not "cut government back," nor even eliminate the hive of nags at Public Health England. For that, someone has to eliminate it, despite "voting against Health."
There isn't going to be an effect on obesity, which in any case is a personal NOT a national problem. And a personal problem which has well known personal solutions. Maybe I'm channelling Snowdopn here, but this whole measure is the punish everybody fat normal and skinny alike to indulge a prejudice held by a few. Let's make PHE declare a measure of success and a timescale, then check up on the results if this farrago is to proceed.
hmm. yes banning (for the reasons the campaign give) isn't the answer. What's disheartening is that the case against bogoff's is not being articulated correctly. They jump from bogoffs make stuff cheap straight to therefore people eat too much therefore boggoffs must be outlawed. Saying stuff is too cheap isn't a persuasive argument when it comes to food. However I have sympathy with the view that someone juggling a tight budget can be bamboozled with price obfuscating tactics and that's what bogoffs are. The retailers job is to disguise the price signal. If the anti bogoff campaign said people unwittingly buy too much food because the price signal has been distorted as I have said I have a lot of sympathy for that.
On the few occasions when I still patronise Tesco I carry stuff out and oft times drop it on the floor if the armful is too big because I won't bow to their "Cass Fucking Sunstein" shite about bags-for-life (which would not be a long time for any cunt involved in such capers were I running the show).
If the FFC thinks I will be pressured by her antics in the matter of biscuit/cake buying the ill-smelling sow is deluding her nannying old, wrinkled and fat arse.
Hallowed: 'However I have sympathy with the view that someone juggling a tight budget can be bamboozled with price obfuscating tactics and that’s what bogoffs are'
Yeah, but it's not really your problem, is it? Or PHE's.
Hallowed Be
"However I have sympathy with the view that someone juggling a tight budget can be bamboozled with price obfuscating tactics and that’s what bogoffs are."
Don't panic. The special offer for cotton wool and teddy bears is next week.
We tried freedom; it doesn't work, everybody got fat.
'U-turn on obesity'
Bad visual.
Rhoda Klapp : "Yeah, but it’s not really your problem, is it? Or PHE." well I agree that PHE should not be concerning themselves with it. My angle would be more the consumer legislation, on weights and measures, that kind of thing that the clever retail bods have to play their games within.