I’ve been saying this was coming for ages. From The Economist:
Warnings about the dangers of drinking are likewise becoming more shrill. On June 5th the Department of Health published a “national alcohol strategyâ€, which sets out to make drunkenness as socially unacceptable as smoking has become in most circles. At the end of May it told booze producers to put health warnings on bottles and cans, and threatened legislation if they did not comply. A few days earlier it toughened its advice to pregnant women, though no medical research dictated a change. The message had been that a couple of small drinks a week were all right; now women are told to avoid alcohol entirely from the day they start trying to conceive until their babies are born.
Never mind the facts, never mind the tradition, never mind the general harmlessness. Yes, ignore all that, and roll out a national alcohol strategy to change the behaviour of the populace with the aim of making them nicer and better behaved citizens.
With the maximum respect that I can muster for that proposal, FUCK OFF.
Alcohol was with us from the dawn of time, and has been with us through some of the best and worst times in our lives. It has saved countless lives through the millennia.
But it is not something that nanny likes, you see. The lives saved, they’ll say, were down to nothing but lack of water purification, and sure that’s corrected now. We don’t need alcohol. Alcohol makes us unpredictable; alcohol makes us a little less inclined to pit up with some of the horseshit that passes for policy these days. And what possible reason would a citizenry have to want to be unpredictable? Or intolerant of top-down-leadership?
So the demon drink will be something to be looked down on; something that no reasonable person would think of using. Then there will be more limits on where it can be drunk, and then who knows what else.
Fuck. That. Shit.
Screw the nanny, bring forth the beverages. Let there be bottles of beer, vats of vino, rations of rum and all the other goodness that the drink can provide. Meanwhile, there’s an almost empty glass about that needs something poured into it…
Actually, this morning, after six double gin and tonics, countless cocktails and wine, the thought of bringing on the booze isn’t that appealing.
*holds head and considers work isn’t the best place to be*
Ah, but sure they’re only weak English doubles. Just think of the headache had they been dispensing good NIrish measures…
Mine’s a malt.
Jameson, I like your style.
I’m with Nelly too, mine’s a large malt please barkeep.
I have an “International Alcohol Strategy”. This, in essence, supposes that at any given time someone somewhere in the world is having a drink, and it would be just plain rude not to join them.
Plus, learning to mix cocktails made me a better person. What’s more I can prove it; *heads to drinks cabinet*
Typical… I do a few posts that I put work into, and get no comments. But post a picture of a nice drink, and you all come out of the woodwork…
Rolpol, you’re fooling nobody, by the way. There’s no way you have a drinks cabinet, it’s clearly an entire room dedicated to the stuff. As it should be.