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Life before the Nanny State — 19 Comments

  1. The headmaster at my secondary school was a heavy smoker and I heard several accounts of pupils being caned for smoking.He wielded the cane in his right hand whilst holding his cigarette in his left.

    • Typical hypocrisy!  We had the ubiquitous bicycle shed, though the year after I left they set aside a smoking room for the sixth-formers.  I wonder if it's still in use!!

    • You didn't go to Forest Grammar by any chance, did you? 🙂

      I was, unfortunately, a regular visitor to the headmaster's office, more often than not for 'six of the best', and he always chain smoked throughout. Player's Navy Cut was his brand, and his office was always a fug of tobacco smoke. Likewise the staff room. The head of the French department, a truly fearsome individual by the name of Mr Fletcher, would stride through the corridors, black cloak billowing behind him, furiously smoking his pipe and leaving the pungent aroma of St Bruno in his wake. And woe betide any pupil who interfered with his passage. It was rumoured that he had spent some years working behind the lines in France for SO during the war. He was one of the teachers that you emphatically DID NOT piss off!

      School must be a truly banal affair these days.

  2. The problem started when the Dietary authorities (supported by the Medical authorities) pushed the eating of carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, etc.) and and urged the reduction of animal fat.

     

    When will 'they' ever learn what is natural for humans to eat ?

  3. It's not diet that causes a lot of obesity but lack of outdoor exercise. In recent decades girls and ladies Gaelic football has become very popular, if not fashionable. Some girls like clattering each other with hurley sticks, which is not exactly ladylike but prepares some for the rigorous tussles of marriage. Another good development has been serious long distance cycling in suburbs and countryside. It is good to wave the summer peletons through the villages. These people aren't going to get obese. Governments should spend less funds on anti-smoking propaganda and more on promoting sporting infrastructure. Lifestyle, not booze and tobacco is the cause of bad health.

    • Part of the problem is that exercise these days tends to be purely recreational.  Kids for example are more often than not driven to school.  From the age of five, I had a mile walk to the primary school, and secondary school meant a three mile cycle.  Roads are more crowded these days I grant, but some of the blame must lie with the irrational fears pumped out about kidnappings and paedophiles.

      And computer games should be banned with the severest penalties!

      • Agreed that computer games should be verboten to kids under 18, and actively discouraged for ages above that. Kids should walk to school if less than 1.5km from home. I walked 100m to the primary school around the corner, and ran home for lunch while the country kids tucked into their mashed banana sandwiches and bottled milk. After school we played marbles (good for knee muscles and eye focus) or we went looking for conkers fallen from chestnut trees. I cycled 7km to secondary school and back 6 days a week.

        • Ya Your not taking my computer games and any suggestions to make it forbidden or *actively discouraged* makes you sound just as bad as these guys trying to dictate to others what they should do with their time and lifes tbh

          • Hah!  I think most people will realise I was being ironic?. 

            The problem with being a Libertarian is that I can't propose a ban on anything, much as I would love to in some cases.

  4. Wut? I love boiled bacon and cabbage! At least you lot don't have a mental rabid vegan as "shadow" meat minister. Corbyn is a fecking bawbag.

    • Welcome John!  I'm sure you'd be welcome but I doubt if you'd be any better off, if you'd even be able to tell the difference.

  5. Personally, I blame those smart phones.

    Sitting on their bums with their chins welded to their chests, whacking away at their smart phones (even when sitting in the driver's seat), eating pizza (and taking pictures of the pizza and posting them on Facebook), isn't exactly promoting good health…or vision for that matter. Even when walking about, these smart phone users seem to be compelled to work their phones (and texting something like: "I'm wlking in frnt some bldng"). This is even more detrimental to their health since their chins are still welded to their chests which promotes walking into things like other people, posts, buildings, cars, lorries, etc.

    Ban smart phones and the problem(s) will be solved. And there will also be a whole lot less images of half eaten pizza on Facebook I'd imagine.

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