Sunday 26 December 2010

Goodwill to all men and even to one or two MPs.

I now have three more places to be deranged in. Aside from Old Holborn and English Secession, where I have had little time to say anything lately, I am now also a guest contributor at Fausty's place. Nothing there from me yet, but it's early days.

In the New Year I'll ramp up the bile here and elsewhere. Past efforts have always been 'post it here, repost elsewhere' but that's no fun. These other blogs have aims that don't exactly match mine. None are as rampant about smoking, for one thing. OH might agree with me on the lovely head-blasting effects of booze but maybe not to the levels I take it. If George Best had my liver for transplant he'd have been worse off. I have heard my liver scream and have been banned by crematoria in case they can't put the fire out.

For now, it's Christmas and I'm not going to spoil it for anyone by ranting about stuff.

Merry Christmas to one and all, and I hope you're all as tanked as me.

Don't worry about your liver. It grows back. As long as you give it time.

9 comments:

soapy souter said...

Merry Christmas leggy and thanks for all your blog posts. Adds a bit of common sense and fun to a weird and sad world. Looking forward to your book launch.

Amusing Bunni said...

Hi Leggy!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
It's good to rest your rants and enjoy the peaceful season with a drink or two! Cheers ~ Bunni

JuliaM said...

"In the New Year I'll ramp up the bile here and elsewhere. "

/cheer

Looking forward to it! Hope the frozen North defrosts soon.

Woman on a Raft said...

I thought you might like this picture. It is from the Home Office flikr stream and shows the results of not sensibly facing the fact that some grown-ups like a smoke.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49956354@N04/5135789331/

Source of Flickr stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49956354@N04/

The photostream is well-worth trawling because although they are employee-taken pictures and are intended as a pr exercise, they they tell more truth about the country than is contained in any one picture when viewed as a set.

They are photo-journalism and many have an immediacy which tells the story from the state-employee's point of view, which is not necessarily quite the same position as the state might take.

Have a look while it is here; it is likely to be a casualty of both cuts and that a PR bod is going to eventually become uneasy at lightly edited pictures being used.

Stewart Cowan said...

Compliments of the season to you, Leggy and everyone, including some politicians: Roger Helmer, Nigel Farage, and, erm, help...

I have to say, though, that after once spending a decade on the p*ss, sobriety is wonderful. Still.

Looking forward to another year of UBU.

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Cheers Leggy and a Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day to you!

Anonymous said...

And a merry Xmas to all from Junican!

I am glad that you (Leg Iron) said that you intend to 'ramp up the bile'. We have seen in the
MSM today the 'New Year Resolution' nudge by virtue of the offer of free nicotine patches for all, plus the 'roll out' of the voucher scheme for healthy living nudges. As we have seen before with these kinds of schemes, failure is guaranteed - no one in their right mind (unless they are criminals intent upon taking advantage) will take the slightest bit of notice. How often do we receive through the post packets of discount vouchers?

In the new year, we have to figure out how to be more pro-active, rather than re-active. We cannot go on allowing Tobacco Control to 'play this game' on their terms.

In my opinion, there is something wrong with this 30 - 40 year delay in the development of lung cancer and heart disease from smoking. It sounds to me to be a rationalisation. ("Only old people get lung cancer, so there must be a delay mechanism").

I haven't seen any YouGov surveys recently about smoking. No doubt they will re-appear shortly. Or, TC has begun to realise that sundry opinions are not relevant. Even the 'stinkers' have begun to drift away.

In the new year, we really need some sort of petition about relaxing the ban.

Unfortunately, there is a little nigger in the woodpile, and that is the woeful failure of publicans to defend themselves.

Even so, there are serious political questions to be asked:

1. How did it come to pass that certain politicians managed to use parliamentary tricks to change a Bill at the last moment, which rendered their previous 'consultations' worthless? The question needs to be asked.

2. Why was the Bill introduced into the Lords sneakily just before Xmas?

3. Why was 'smoking' singled out to be illegal indoors but not outdoors, when hardly any of our laws make such a distinction? Most of our laws apply both indoors and outdoors. Generally speaking, the only laws which apply indoors are those which are unlikely to be needed outdoors.


4. How did it come to be that ordinary citizens (publicans) were coerced into becoming agents of the State? IE Publicans being forced to become unpaid officials of the State?

These are the things that need to be examined and overturned. It has little to do with Health.

Of the above (although all are important), the really, really important one is the decision of Parliament to force publicans to be enforcers. It is very unfortunate that publicans did not fight against this idea (is it any wonder that the powers that be regarded the ban as 'a great success'? The big success was recruiting publicans to be agents of the State.

It is not too late. It can never be so unless we really do become subject to a totalitarian State.

It is late. I could go on, but it would be better to let the thoughts sink in.

Essentially, there is no need for thousands of people to march in the streets. All that is required is that a few people, in the full glare of publicity, show how silly the ban is, since it is based upon the principle any any place open to the public is 'a public place'. Therefore, why should not a group of people enter a pub with their own flasks of coffee and a sandwich and a newspaper and sit and enjoy without troubling the publican to serve them with anyting at all? What is the problem?

This could be done very easily - but who will organise it?

Perhaps we should organise in this way.

banned said...

Junican said the N word and I'm gonna tell.

Belated good wishes Leggy, hope you had a good one and recover soon. Mine was somewhat subdued due to being obliged to drive quite a lot.
My particular thing is climate change Bollox and this is what Xmas brought me on an anecdotal basis.
I've lived in the southwest for twenty years and it has never snowed before the New Year, this year it began on Dec 17th.

I have never known more than an inch of snow here and only three times as much as that. On Monday 20th Dec I awoke to 10 inches.

I have never known temps of less than -2C, it has now been -10C (or less) since Xmas Eve.

I have never known snow to last more than a day or so, the snow of Dec 17th is still with us.

On the plus side, many grown men have had hours of fun building life size snowmen which they have not been able to so since their childhood.
ps, the metoffice website keeps putting off the "great thaw" on a daily basis, it will always be "tomorrow", like the free beer.

More bile That's what this country needs!

Anonymous said...

Leg-Iron, your prose, on any subject, would be welcome at my place.

I hope the festive season has delivered for you.

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