Ministers have been accused of colluding with the alcohol lobby to water down new warning labels on drinks.Which is basically the same thing, after all; if it was good for your baby, there'd be a quango trying to force it down your throat. Like the folic acid brigade.
Plans to warn mothers-to-be that alcohol 'can harm your baby' were rejected in favour of telling women to 'avoid alcohol when pregnant'.
Department of Health papers, which officials fought to keep secret, show how it opted for the milder warning.And this is a bad thing? Surely no-one would be in favour of the government going into costly legal battle with the trade over...
The document said one of the 'pros' was this message had been 'provisionally accepted by the alcohol industry'.
Oh, oh:
Last night, Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: 'These papers highlight the intense nervousness and impotence this Government feels in squaring up to the drinks industry.I dunno, Don.
'Rather than standing up for the public health of consumers, it appears labelling warning options have been watered down to appease the drinks industry. When will the health of consumers start to come before the interests of the drinks industry?'
When will the free choices of consumers start to come before the rapacious need of you NuPuritans to get your fizzog in the newspapers condemning something?
? I tell you, it will cause me immense pleasure to give Don and 2.99 million other quangocrats their P45s as soon as I'm in charge.
ReplyDeleteWhatever skullduggery "Big Alcohol" may be guilty of, they are very cautious not to tread on government's toes and they make a massive contribution to tax revenues so fair's fair.
Well, Mark, I do believe that it is we, the public (of course), who "make a massive contribution to tax revenues" through buying booze.
ReplyDeleteAs for the labeling: why is there no message on alcoholic drink bottles to inform people that drinking the stuff can make you drunk? Could it be that people know it? I don't mean to be disparaging but it seems to me that any pregnant woman who doesn't know that drinking alcohol would be bound to have some effect on an unborn child is probably not going to change her habits on being informed of that.
Julia,
ReplyDeleteOnce MW has given them the P45's can I shoot the buggers, thus saving 3million JSA payments?
I believe that fits with the calls for 'savage' action?
I think if we had a whip round of the blogosphere for the ammunition, you'd get your wish four times over... :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was pregnant with both my daughters, I had the most wonderful Irish Doctor.
ReplyDeleteI was allergic to taking iron tablets, they gave me migraine. His prescription was "just drink a pint of guinness a night"....
....never did me or my babies any harm and didn´t give me migraine either!
I need a drink after that.
ReplyDeleteRemember Alex Salmond's publicity stunt "sympathy visit" to an axed distillery?
ReplyDelete[The one that had to close because Scottish political decisions reduced alcohol consumption, and sales plummeted.]