An Unhealthy Obssession

I’ve been to the high street in Preston. Had a sub, there once, too. That,  it seems is the problem. Indeed, it was very naughty of me, for fast food is “unhealthy“. Never mind that I  am an adult buying a legal product, the state needs to intervene, apparently because I  cannot make the right choices without the state  telling me what to do.

The Royal Society for Public Health assessed 70 areas in the UK according to the types of businesses found there.

Bookmakers, loan shops, tanning salons and fast-food outlets were viewed as having a “negative impact” on public health, while leisure centres and health services were deemed positive.

I do hope we are not paying for this royal society of interfering prodnosed busybodies, for that is unhealthy  – it raises my blood pressure. What is unhealthy here is that we have such organisations dedicated to  deciding that legal businesses providing a service  people want and pay for is to be regulated or, better still, put out of business entirely because they, not we, are the ones who should be making the decisions.

Yet…

The organisation’s chief executive Shirley Cramer said the table was by no means a reflection on whether each area was generally healthy or unhealthy, but it highlighted some trends.

There you are, then. There isn’t a problem. The high street in Preston looked much like any other high street to me. And I   bought a meal in one of the outlets. It was a mutually convenient transaction and  I have not suffered any ill health as a consequence. If the place was infested with rats and I contracted some nasty disease, then it would be a problem for the public health people to become involved with – because that is the very raison d’être of public health, not deciding what choices we should be making.

As it wasn’t a public health problem, there is nothing  here to see – merely adults making choices – choices that are nothing to do with  anyone other than the parties engaged in that transaction.

“Our research does find higher concentrations of unhealthy businesses exist in places which already experience high levels of deprivation and premature mortality,” she said.

They are not unhealthy businesses. They are businesses providing a service people are willing to pay for. And as such, they should be left alone.

She said local authorities should be given more planning powers to limit the numbers of certain types of businesses on High Streets.

The society is also campaigning for public health criteria to be a condition of licensing for all types of business.

It also wants mandatory food hygiene ratings linked to calorie and nutrition labelling for fast food outlets and for councils to be able to set varying business rates to encourage healthier outlets.

Yeah, there’s nothing like a little shroud waving to justify more sucking at the public teat, to  justify their interfering in people’s lives and to steal ever more of their money. At least the “unhealthy” businesses are providing a service or goods that people want enough to  pay for. Organisations like the Royal Nannying Society have to steal it via the hmrc.

10 Comments

  1. Perhaps if they sacked all these, tut tut, nanying finger wavers we could have a reduction in taxes. Now that would be a result. Frankly I’d spend my ‘windfall’ on KFC and beer.

  2. And I’m rather partial to the occasional Burger King offering too: yesterday, I and best beloved went to a MacDonalds drive-through and had their Deli Sub-of-the-day. A very tasty crispy coated chicken fillet in sweet chilli sauce plus a dollop of rabbit-food (green stuff) in fresh soft bread. Less than £2 each and extremely tasty, satisfying and damned good value.

    If it gives the ‘nannies’ apoplexy, all the better!

  3. “…fast food is “unhealthy“”

    Which is utter globular male generative organs. It might well be ‘unhealthy’ if you eat nothing but, and take no exercise. But the occasional Big Mac is not the equivalent of swimming in radioactive ooze, ffs!

  4. I have never had the good fortune of being guided by one of these “experts”. How have I lived so long.

    I once heard of an accurate description of an expert. Ex is something that has been, and we all know what comes in spurts.

    • Ex = has been known. Spurts, too, = have been known. Does that mean that experts are history? Already?

  5. “…fast food is ‘unhealthy'”

    So what is an overpriced bag full of nuts and seeds then? Or is it only “fast food” if it’s something the food fascists want us to stop eating?

    The government is not our mother. The government is not our father. The government is our housekeeper. It is our employee and is already paid very, very handsomely to provide a service, nothing more.

    The day the help starts giving us orders is the day the help gets sacked.

      • Not easy, Andy.

        They’ve taken away from us things which go bang (for their protection, not ours).

        Maybe it’s time to look again at pointy-ended sticks, and Dr. Guillotin’s ingenious little invention.

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