Kraft Durch Freude

From The Metro:

Schoolchildren could face annual fitness tests under plans laid out by the Government's [morbidly obese] chief medical officer.

Sir Liam Donaldson wants pupils to undergo "bleep tests" - similar to schemes already running in California and Texas - to help increase fitness levels.The checks would reduce the risk of illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, keep weight in check and improve mental health, he said.

Parents would be sent letters detailing their child's fitness with the aim of getting families involved in improving health. Around the world, physical fitness among children is declining by 4.3% per decade. In England, the rate of decline is 7% to 9%, regardless of obesity levels...

Sir Liam Donaldson on top form

From The Grauniad:

The first flu pandemic of the 21st century is less lethal than experts feared, killing only 26 out of every 100,000 people who became ill, a study by the chief medical officer reveals today... a third of deaths have been among healthy people who would not have been eligible for vaccination under the present strategy...

Good stuff, you might think, panic over, we might as well not bother with the billions to be spent on the vaccine - given those sort of numbers it would be nigh impossible to prove that the vaccine actually led to a statistically significant reduction in the number of deaths.

Nope:

Sir Liam Donaldson and colleagues say in their paper published online that vaccination may have to be extended to a wider population than at present.

Retraction Of The Week, Not

From the BBC:

According to the government-commissioned study, a 40p minimum unit price - coupled with a ban on promotions - would cut the number of alcohol-related deaths by about 70 in its first year... Earlier this year, the chief medical officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, said such measures would save thousands of lives.

OK, everybody's allowed to make guesstimates and use round numbers, but that's still one heck of discrepancy. The latest made-up statistic is that there "were 8,724 alcohol-related deaths in 2007" (NSO). On the one hand, it would be impossible to "prove" that there were 70 fewer deaths; on the other hand, the only way they could get the number of deaths down by "thousands" would be to change the definition of alcohol-related ever so slightly (the same NSO figures say that there were 4,144 alcohol-related deaths in 1991, so the increase is almost certainly down to definition). In any event, the figure of 8,724 is barely one-and-a-half per cent of annual deaths in the UK.

I did like this bit as well:

Chief medical officer Harry Burns said: "All the evidence suggests that if you want to reduce alcohol-related harm, you need to look at price and availability, which are the key drivers of consumption. I've got to admit that initially I was sceptical about minimum pricing but when you look at the facts, it becomes a no-brainer."

Hmm. The strategy of reducing availability and hence increasing prices of things like, er, drugs has worked so-o-o-o well over the decades, hasn't it?

Made-up statistic of the week

From The Metro:

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, told MPs that the number of alcohol-induced deaths was up to five times the official figure of 8,000.

Why stop there, you twat? Why not say "up to ten times" or "up to a hundred times"? Has it ever crossed your mind that the true figure might be, er, "less than" the official figure (you'd expect any 'official' figure to be in the mid-range of possible estimates), which is itself prone to being revised upwards by a factor of four, of course.

Well, that's all right then

From the BBC:

The government's top medical adviser has drawn up plans for a minimum price for alcohol which would double the cost of some drinks in England. Under the proposal from Sir Liam Donaldson, it has been reported that no drinks could be sold for less than 50 pence per unit of alcohol they contain. It would mean most bottles of wine could not be sold for less than £4.50.

Cabinet minister Douglas Alexander said the government would consider what Sir Liam had to say in his report. The proposal is aimed at tackling alcohol misuse and is set out in Sir Liam's annual report on the nation's health. The BBC's health correspondent Adam Brimelow said Sir Liam's recommendation would not automatically become government policy. But he said Sir Liam was influential and had advocated a ban on smoking in public places long before it became law.

Our correspondent added that recent research from the Department of Health had shown that a minimum of 50 pence per unit of alcohol would reduce consumption by almost 7%.

Woah!

1. The government does not listen to its own specialist advisors unless it suits them. When the ACMD put out research showing that cannabis was not particularly harmful, the government completely ignored it. If Sir Liam was a cheerleader for the smoking ban, then this does not bode well.

2. T'was but two short weeks ago that the socialist running dogs reported that "... research [carried out by bansturbators] showed a minimum 40p per unit caused consumption to fall 2.6 per cent." That's how these convenient myths are inflated - first it's a 40p minimum leading to a 2.6% fall; now it's a 50p minimum leading to a 7% fall. In a few weeks' time, no doubt some more "research" will show that a 60p minimum will lead to a 15% fall and so on.

3. It's nice to see everybody's favourite fakecharity get another opportunity to preen themselves. If you want an idea as to the direction the government is going, they are as good a guide as any.

4. The BBC article rounds off with some meaningless statistics on alcohol-related NHS admissions, stated as 207,800, or roughly two per cent of all admissions, including accidents while drunk. Last summer, they briefly revised this figure up to 800,000, but that Big Fat Lie seems to have gone out of fashion again.

5. The article also mentions the "cost to the NHS", stated as £2.7 billion, or a staggering £13,000 per admission, that can't be right, surely? And how about comparing that £2.7 billion with total receipts from VAT and duty on alcohol sales of around £12 billion?

I tell you, it's thirsty work, this 'blogging, and the weather is glorious so I'm off out to do some in-depth, first hand research on the effects of alcohol.

H/t CCTV Star

"Children may face drink ban at home"

Kill them. Kill them all.