Monday 18 February 2013

Fun Online Polls: The EU Budget and Taxes on fizzy drinks

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Did David Cameron get a good deal in the EU budget negotiations?

Oh come off it, it's all just posturing - 46%

No, the EU's budget should be re-set to zero - 25%
No, because the UK's net contributions will probably go up anyway - 13%
Yes, he got a reasonable deal - 9%
No, he should have pushed for deeper cuts - 2%
No, with these savage cuts he is endangering the European project - 2%
Other, please specify - 4%


I was with the majority on this one, the whole thing is smoke and mirrors like anything else to do with the EU budget. There was a good turnout of 141 voters, thanks to everybody who took part.
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They're at it again:

Fizzy drinks should be heavily taxed(1) and junk food adverts banished until after the watershed, doctors have said, in a call for action over obesity. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which represents nearly every doctor in the UK, said ballooning waistlines already constituted a "huge crisis"(2). Its report said current measures were failing and called for unhealthy foods to be treated more like cigarettes(3)...

1) That's this week's Fun Online Poll, vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

2) These people don't understand their own terminology. A "crisis" in medical terms is:

1. the turning point of a disease for better or worse; especially a sudden change, usually for the better, in the course of an acute disease.
2. a sudden paroxysmal intensification of symptoms in the course of a disease.


I'm not even convinced that obesity is a "disease" as such and even if it is, it is a "chronic" rather than an "acute" disease, but at least the article doesn't refer to an "obesity epidemic".

3) So people who want to eat chocolate or crisps are going to have to go outside, regardless of the weather, I suppose.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re no 3 ... please don't give them ideas. I'm expecting the notion of "passive obesity" (caused by other people eating too much) to be raised soon.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AC, keep up at the back!

The UK govt is already using the term "passive obesity" see e.g. page 5 of this 'report' from 2007.

Sarton Bander said...

Maybe they should charge people more in NHS fees for being unhealthy...

Mark Wadsworth said...

SB, why?

By and large, health risks average out...

Old people fall and break hips, healthy people injure themselves playing football or ski-ing, drunks injure themselves in fights, blokes injure themselves doing DIY, women hurt their ankles wearing high heels, car drivers and pedestrians get hurt in accidents, why pick on the fatties?

They are not necessarily old, probably not playing football or ski-ing and instead of being out drinking and fighting they are at home watching telly and eating etc.

Ian Hills said...

Food and drink VAT coming soon...

Bayard said...

IH, drink is already VATable, AFAIK, unless it's water.

"The UK govt is already using the term "passive obesity" see e.g. page 5 of this 'report' from 2007"
Mark, it's actually on page 9. On my copy, page 5 is blank, but possibly not intentionally so. However I did get to see a picture of Mr King looking every inch the smug git that he is.

Mark Wadsworth said...

IH, VAT is the worst tax of all - but please note that the Homeys (in this country) have made sure it does not apply to land or finance based activities. So what's sauce for the goose etc. Interestingly, most other Member States have VAT on food, albeit usually at a lower rate.

B, yes, VAT is levied on most drinks.

The term appears on the page numbered 5, the first four pages are not numbered.

Bayard said...

They haven't thought this through, have they? What about fizzy drinks that contain no sugar, like fizzy water? What about very sweet drinks that contain lots of sugar, but aren't fizzy? What about champagne, especially dry champagne? Will it be illegal to sell fizzy drinks without a licence?

"The term appears on the page numbered 5,"

I think page 5 has now been redacted.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, weird, the term is no longer on page 5 but is still on page 9. I have downloaded the pdf for future reference.

Robin Smith said...

Isn't it stunning. No one, anywhere, asking why people generally are harming themselves. What is causing people to take such little care of their own bodies.

High GI food is a drug just like real drugs. Satisfying an unhappy mind temporarily.

What is root cause of chronic drug abuse? The Dependency State of course. All slaves, working nuts off, no time to bring up own children, no down time to relax and find oneself, incomes falling, constant risk of failure regardless of how hard you work.

Of course, drugs are the only relief.