Right then, kiddies, the pub beckons, and I can hardly decline, so I'm gone for the day. Have fun . . .
243 days ago
RT @rattlecans: How many suicides will occur in the UK before Lab Party is willing to reconsider their policies and attitudes to the poo ...
244 days ago
@crimsoncrip Yep - excellent day, thanks. A friend took me to Edale, in the Peak District, a Mecca for walkers… (cont) http://t.co/Ht08I91Q
244 days ago
@nigeldraper Screw that! I don't drive now, but that's way too much interference in what is purely a national, even a local, issue.
244 days ago
@crimsoncrip Thanks for #CT. Bit late - been out all day.
245 days ago
The Conservatives have revealed they would scrap the units system used to label alcoholic drinks if they came into power.
The units, which they describe as confusing, would be replaced with details on the volume of alcohol contained in each beverage, along with the number of calories.
OK, let’s just look at that for a moment. No, they’re not confusing for anyone of even moderate intelligence, and hey, they came up with the idea in the first place, so it’s a bit bloody rich to be knocking it!
Any new system would be more honest, though, because the units system is a pack of lies. The correct units per person per week figures were very much higher than those published, but the then government didn’t like the look of that, and simply cobbled up fictional figures that were much lower.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said that he wants to ‘provide people with relevant, consistent information such as the centilitres of alcohol in alcohol products, and the calories content in each alcoholic drink’.
Really? Beer is served by the pint and alcohol is to be expressed in centilitres. And that’s simpler than units? The hell it is. If beer was sold in litres then yes, the relationship would be crystal clear – centilitres per litres is a simple calculation for anyone to make – unless they’ve drunk too much. Centilitres per pint, though, is just perverse. And he forgot to mention more honest, no doubt because it was a Tory government that lied to us in the first place – no change there, then.
And we already have a system based on ABV – the percentage of alcohol by volume – a beer of 5% ABV means a 20th of your pint, or one ounce of the liquid, is pure alcohol (assuming a full pint). How hard is that?
January 14, 2010 by Ron
The Conservatives have revealed they would scrap the units system used to label alcoholic drinks if they came into power.
The units, which they describe as confusing, would be replaced with details on the volume of alcohol contained in each beverage, along with the number of calories.
OK, let’s just look at that for a moment. No, they’re not confusing for anyone of even moderate intelligence, and hey, they came up with the idea in the first place, so it’s a bit bloody rich to be knocking it!
Any new system would be more honest, though, because the units system is a pack of lies. The correct units per person per week figures were very much higher than those published, but the then government didn’t like the look of that, and simply cobbled up fictional figures that were much lower.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said that he wants to ‘provide people with relevant, consistent information such as the centilitres of alcohol in alcohol products, and the calories content in each alcoholic drink’.
Really? Beer is served by the pint and alcohol is to be expressed in centilitres. And that’s simpler than units? The hell it is. If beer was sold in litres then yes, the relationship would be crystal clear – centilitres per litres is a simple calculation for anyone to make – unless they’ve drunk too much. Centilitres per pint, though, is just perverse. And he forgot to mention more honest, no doubt because it was a Tory government that lied to us in the first place – no change there, then.
And we already have a system based on ABV – the percentage of alcohol by volume – a beer of 5% ABV means a 20th of your pint, or one ounce of the liquid, is pure alcohol (assuming a full pint). How hard is that?