Gordon Brown munches 9 bananas a day.
In addition to his part time job of packing fudge. Into boxes for delivery to Thorntons, obviously. (This and the above both via Old Holborn)
Or: Man indirectly responsible for the killing of countless men, women and children feels a bit sorry.
Or: Former politician attempts to kick start acting career on TV.
I’m just disappointed he recovered so quickly. Had he had a real breakdown, with some sign of remorse, he might have been able to claw back some vestige of humanity. As it is, he’s still the guy who’s willing to forge the death warrant of countless people for a few pieces of silver.
The sad thing is that it so often seems that when it comes to the State, Campbell’s utter lack of morality and disregard for human life (all whilst continuing to claim the moral high ground) seems to be the rule, not the exception. Randolph Bourne was right.
You’re a high ranking government official, maybe in the Department of Health.
Millions of your citizens, responsibility for which has been thrust into your incompetent hands for reasons you cannot possibly fathom, are in the habit of enjoying an object that whilst giving them pleasure, is generally considered addictive, cancerous, anti-social, costs the tax payer billions a year (regardless of how much said habit draws in), and is just down right gross. As an oh-so-honourably intentioned health minister, you no doubt want to wean people out of this habit, yes? Ah, but it’s a nice little earner for you and your underlings, so let’s leave it be.
But wait! Thanks to human ingenuity and entrepreneurship, there’s an alternative that, in the long run, doesn’t cost so much, is much cleaner since it emits a vapour rather than smoke, thus avoiding all that nasty second hand stuff, and, some say, is healthier for the user. On top of this, it STILL gives the user the dosage of the drug he wants so much, whilst harming no one else. It could save the country billions, not only in health care costs, but also in terms of helping to save the pubs that are dying to due the ban on the older product. It’s a win-win-win situation.
Ok. So. You’re the Health Minister. What do you do?
Isn’t it obvious?
You ban it. Through the backdoor, of course, you don’t want to scare people. Put the lobster in the pot whilst the water’s cold…
This would require all currently unlicensed NCPs on the market, such as electronic cigarettes containing nicotine and nicotine gels, to apply to the MHRA for a medicines Marketing Authorisation (MA).
Given that these Regulations do not make explicit provisions for a staged withdrawal from the market of an
unlicensed medicinal product, immediate cessation of the sale or supply is usually required
by the Agency, with written confirmation of the same within 21 days.
And so it begins, the unnecessary regulation of a perfectly good consumer good, which starts with something as simple as “Oh, we just want you to follow a few small rules… or we’ll shut you down”, and before you know it, poof- they’re all gone from the shelves.
Merely baby steps to an outright removal of these cleaner, safer, but worst of all for the Righteous*, untaxed products.
H/T Charlotte Gore. The Twatter, not the blogger, of which she is not one anymore.
On a bit of a break, so if you’re so pissed off at the state of the world that you can’t relax, try watching this and realizing just how meaningless you are.
So it seems that Alan Duncan has done it again and created a bit of a fuss about whether prison works. According to this articleby good friend Brendan Carlin in the MoS Alan Duncan has said the phrase Prison Works is repulsively simplistic.
Well I guess I am repulsively simplistic because when an offender is locked up it means they are unable to commit more crimes. Their possible victims are safe from whatever crimes they may commit. Of course there are huge issues with drugs in prison; with prisoners being released with no education whatsoever which means they may well be draw back into a life of crime. But, and it’s a big but, when prisoners are locked up they are not able to inflict pain and suffering on potential victims, and because of that Alan, prison works.
Er… so you’re saying, that for the duration of a prison sentence, during which a person is in a small room for, like, 23 hours a day, they can’t commit crimes outside of prison?
My penology lecturer would be so proud of this analysis.
When someone says that “Prison doesn’t work”, what they’re really saying is that prison gives convicts no incentive to reform once they’re out. Unless, Mr Sheppard is suggesting that we cut re-offending down to 0% by giving all crimes the life sentence?
“I am the people,” President Hugo Chavez boomed confidently Saturday as thousands of pro- and anti-government demonstrators in Caracas sharpened their rhetoric ahead of this year’s legislative elections…
…”I demand absolute loyalty to my leadership… anything else is betrayal,” the firebrand leftist president warned.
I am not an individual, I am the people,” Chavez said. “It’s my duty to demand respect for the people.
“If you cherish the fatherland, join Chavez,” he urged, asking for votes to renew the ruling party’s control of both National Assembly houses in the next election.
“Once more we have to win the majority of the National Assembly… and continue building our new socialist state,” Chavez added.
“Let’s expand our socialist project,” he said.
All this talk of Fatherlands and Unity reminds me more of the fascist dictators than the socialist ones. Of course, the final product of both types is the same, even if the ideas behind them differ (slightly). Statism is statism is statism.
