It’s only a matter of telling the truth (if it is the truth) …
Yesterday, for my sins, I was watching ITV’s early morning show (6.30am–8.30am) Good Morning Britain which I tend to do on days when Piers Morgan is presiding alongside Susannah Reid because he’s a larger-than-life character and far more entertaining than anything the BBC can offer.
Ill-prepared politicians who accept an opportunity to go on the show when Morgan is holding court – and/or are reluctantly sent out by party strategists for the purpose – do so at their peril.
In this respect it almost seems cruel and/or flogging a dead horse to single her out but Diane Abbott has almost cornered the market in hapless ineptitude – see here for her latest car-crash appearance – MORGAN AND ABBOTT
But that’s by the by.
Yesterday’s edition of the show featured Morgan conducting a studio clash between one of the female doctors who regularly pops up on TV and a chap presumably from the brewing industry over Scotland’s decision to introduce a 50p minimum price for alcoholic drinks as a measure designed to address the Jocks’ massive national drinking problems.
The nub of the matter was the doctor’s support for the measure – on the grounds, mirroring those of the recent sugar tax imposed in the UK designed to discourage punters from devouring too many sugary drinks, and indeed the sweets/soft drinks industries from making them, in the cause of seeking to reduce our massive obesity epidemic – versus the drink industry chap’s line that any ‘minimum price’ law was inevitably going to hit the poor harder than anyone else.
See here – SCOTTISH MINIMUM DRINKS PRICE CLASH
It seems to me that the key issue here is the different sides of the argument on the extent to which any modern, sensible, wise and socially-concerned Government in the Western World should, or should not go, in the cause of generally improving its citizen’s health and quality of life – and the extent to which the individual’s responsibility and/or choice is sacrosanct and should be respected. To get to the nub of it, which is ‘better’ – the Nanny State approach or respect for the principle ‘let every man (or woman) do what they want’?
Being the maverick absurdist that I am, it occurred to me whilst watching yesterday’s ‘discussion’ that in a weird counter-intuitive fashion the best possible way that a Government could make people sit up and take notice – or even prompt them do something about their supposed unhealthy lifestyle choices – would be to tell the absolute, direct, unvarnished truth for once.
[I should add the disclaimer here that I do not know the scientific facts, nor the official data, of the national drinking situation as I type, but I hope the reader will allow me the indulgence of presuming for the sake of what I am about to suggest that I’ve got the ‘headlines’ at least within a country mile of what is actually the case. I’d also better add that I don’t support any UK political party and what follows is merely a fictional fantasy …]
I just think it would be wonderful once in a while for a Government health minister appearing on a current affairs programme to discuss the issue of the various health and other problems associated with alcohol drinking – let’s just mention drunken fights, crime etc. on a Friday or Saturday night in every town the length and breadth of the land, drink-driving, liver disease and the vast cost to the taxpayer of having to pay from all the treatments that have to be doled out to those who over-indulge – to be honest.
Faced with the ‘let the individual make his own choice’ and/or ‘you’re going to hit the poorest in society worst because wealthier people will just pay higher prices and drink the same amount as before whilst barely noticing the impact upon their purses’, the Minister could then respond something like this:
“You know what, you’re absolutely right.
We had a chat in Cabinet yesterday afternoon and decided, having considered all the issues in the round, that our previous (Nanny State) policy was 100% wrong.
We’ve therefore done a complete U-turn and today I’m announcing our new health policy, which respects the absolute right of people to make their own choices – surely one of the great British principles that underpins our national culture and way of life.
The clinching argument for me was the financial one made by the Chancellor.
You see, although the cost of providing treatments that deal with the health problems brought about by drinking, smoking, obesity and drug-taking to our wonderful ‘free at the point of delivery’ National Health Service is absolutely eye-watering, this country has a far more worrying problem: i.e. the ongoing and ever-increasing costs associated with the numbers of people who are living far longer these days and therefore will need their pensions and care costs covered over a far greater period than ever before.
The Treasury has been doing a huge study over the past year and they’ve just announced the results. The cost of treating all these ‘self-inflicted’ health problems referred to above actually turns out to be far less than that of dealing with the ageing population and everything that goes with it.
In other words, we’ve discovered that – by not spending billions of pounds running campaigns to get the nation to be healthier and instead simply picking up the tab for treating all those who indulge to excess in anything and therefore will need to rely upon our good old NHS to ease the pains of their final years – overall the nation will actually be far better off.
Why?
Because all those who ‘make use of their inalienable right to make their own choices’ and thereby live unhealthy lives will die so much earlier … and thus take the burden of having to look after them in their old age away, leaving the rest of us to relax in relative luxury (as we would like to) as we sail on towards our 100th birthdays and beyond.
It’s a win-win situation. Those that want to can live as unhealthily as they like while they still can … and the rest of us can go on living in relative comfort being able to observe and enjoy at all the wonders the world has to offer without having a load of stoned drunken fatties getting in the way!”
