There was a wee article in one of the papers recently.

Young Europeans ‘may lead shorter lives than their grandparents’

Being a grandparent, it naturally caught my eye.

So let's look at the "facts" as laid down by our good friends in the WHO –

Young people are likely to have a shorter lifespan than their grandparents because "over half of the population is overweight or obese, and that alcohol consumption and tobacco use remains ‘alarmingly high’".

The corollary of this argument surely must mean that the grandparents' side of the equation wasn't obese and had much lower alcohol and tobacco consumption?

I grew up in the latter half of the last century at a time when smoking was so common it was the norm.  The only places where smoking was banned [as far as I remember] was in churches and the lower deck of a double-decker bus.  Everyone smoked, from doctors to shopkeepers, from teachers to farmers.  When people came around to the house, the polite thing was to offer them a cigarette and a cup of tea.  When it came to diet, we had such delicacies as "dripping toast" [toast spread with the fat off boiled meat], we fried our food and fat was a normal part of our meat diet.   Anyone remember boiled bacon and cabbage?  We drank at a rate of pints and no one turned a hair.  In fact you could argue that our lifestyle was the very opposite of the lifestyle being rammed down our necks by the Nannies.

So here I am, a product of that generation, and I am supposed to have a longer lifespan that my grandchildren?  And their reason is that alcohol consumption and tobacco use remains ‘alarmingly high’?  Well, seeing as the pubs are closing at an alarming rate, I can only assume that most alcohol consumption takes place in the home, and hardly at the same rate as in the pubs in the old days.  As for tobacco consumption, that is only a fraction of the old levels and still falling so I don't know where the "alarmingly high" bit comes in except in the minds of the Nannies.

So smoking is way down, people have never been more diet conscious and alcohol is under attack.  Yet cancers are on the increase and they are worried about reduced lifespan?  There is something radically wrong here?

I see our Nanny doctors are on the warpath now.  They are demanding a tax on alcohol and fatty foods and an increase of €1 on a packet of fags, as if they weren't taxed enough already?  When are these arseholes going to realise that all their efforts to control us have either had no effect whatsoever or in most cases have been counterproductive and have had dire consequences?

They love to tell us that it's the Lower Orders with the lowest incomes who are smoking and drinking to excess.  Their efforts not only add to the financial burden of the poorer in society but try to deprive them of the few pleasures they have left.  Take away their rollies, their cans of gnat's piss lager and their pizzas and what do they have left?  Are they supposed to pass their winter evenings by going for a jolly old jog around the estate?

The one thing the WHO report got right is that life satisfaction is a good path to longevity.  Let people be happy and not only will they enjoy life more but will probably live longer.

Constant nagging, cajoling and bullying will only make people miserable.

Draw your own conclusions.