Slainte
So John Gormley Gormless, our dear Minister for the Environment and Limp Lettuce Leaf has spoken yet again.
Forget Al Gore. Forget the Kyoto Protocol. Gormless is single handedly saving the world from Global Warming all by himself.
He is taxing high emission vehicles. He is banning patio heaters. He is banning incandescent bulbs.
He is now asking us to stop drinking bottled water.
You see, bottled water comes in plastic bottles, and they are causing havoc. We use too many of them. We must drink tap water instead because it is just as good.
Let’s wind the clock back to last summer, John. Do you remember Galway? Do you remember how Galway city and half of East Galway County had infected water that was undrinkable for months? You must have forgotten about that.
But do you remember back to more recent times, John? In fact it was only three weeks ago that you were worried about a report that said that 36% [yes – over a third] of our water supplies were hazardous with cryptosporidium or E.coli.
However, I suppose poisoning a third of the population is a small price to pay so that Gormless can feel he is pushing the green agenda.
So I ask you all to raise a glass to John.
Sláinte.
[which, in case you have forgotten, John, translates as ‘Health’]
Must resist the urge to comment on the Green Party, anger rising! Back in 10 mins.
Those shower have no coherent strategy; if it sounds ‘Green’ they push it without thinking it through. Did you hear the Trevor last week trying to convince Matt Cooper that Potatoes were vegetables! Was he talking about himself??
Thats enough to make you drink the Black stuff instead of water!
OK Grannymar, I’ll have two pints….to start.
🙂
Brian, Grandad will get them. It is his round!
If it’s his round then I’ll have a double brandy chaser as well.
I do suffer from a fair amount of global warming skepticism and agree that the greens are a bit of a let down. However I do also think there are a large number of things in the world that could do with being changed.
Churchill once said that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the others. I’d suggest that the greens are possibly the worst political party, except for all the others.
Bloody hell! I leave the computer for five minutes and come back to find I’m buying drinks all round! Yiz can all drink water like the nice Mr Gormless said.
Gormless has completely lost the run of himself. He might as well make the most of it, because I doubt he’ll be in power after the next election.
I was in Galway last summer when the water was undrinkable. We American tourists got a lot of stern warnings, and I paid attention. No bottled water? I might have been dead by now.
The Chicago solution is to add an extra 5-cent tax on each bottle of water sold, on top of a lot of other taxes. I don’t buy the stuff any more, but I don’t suppose the rich Yuppies have given it up, any more than they’d give up their Starbucks coffee no matter what the price.
Marlys – You have no idea how incompetent our government is, though you may be getting an idea by now! The whole idea of bemoaning the quality of our water supply, and then three weeks later, telling us we should be drinking it?
Don’t mention raising prices. They LOVE that. It’s their answer to everything. Why the hell can’t we go back to the good old recyclable glass bottles, and get a rebate on each one we return? It worked in the Good Old Days, and it works in other countries?
Grandad,
Couldn’t we do something revolutionary, like having glass bottles with a deposit?
Ian – Great minds think alike. Our comments crossed in the post 😉
The glass refundable bottle idea has it’s merits but it is fundamentally flawed.
You see this is Ireland. The glass bottle idea involves giving money back to customers. Why give 5c back when you can claim 10c in tax instead?
I remember buying wine in glass bottles with a deposit one year while on holiday in Malta.
I remember the good old days of bringing glass bottles back to the supermarket. It wasn’t that long ago either. I also remember being charged extra for bottles of stout, if I was taking them out of the pub!
I drink to your continued health and wealth.
Happy Birthday.
Wha??? How did you know that?
Thanks anyway! 😆
Yeah, HB GD.
Happy birthday old fella! I’m all up for the recyclable bottles and the deposit regime. They still do it here in South Australia but it became too unweildy *read not enough money in recycling and reusing* in the rest of the country, I don’t know why because we’re among the biggest recyclers per capita in the world. It is back on the agenda tho! As is the don’t drink bottled water thing. I heard somewhere that we should stop drinking filtered beer and milk for the same reason . . production of the glass and cold filtering uses too much energy and water.
Wow I had no idea your water supply was tainted! My backpack is getting fuller what with water purifiers, bullet proof vests and the like! You’ll see me coming a mile away!
I am in favour of the deposit scheme on glass bottles. But then I would be as when I was a kid I shoved an old wrecked pram around the place collecting beer and lemonade bottles and getting the deposits back. It was a penny a bottle. A gobstopper was a penny. Even allowing for the majority of the money having to go to the people who I got the bottles off I still managed to have an almost permanent bulge in the side of my face. So bring back the bottle deposit and let our kids be able to earn a couple of bob.
( For the younger readers a penny was 0.0052829 of a euro and a bob was that times 12 – So, Grandad please do not start us of on inflation, and the rising cost of living since I was a boy. But, happy birthday, and I trust you do not read this until tomorrow and have a great night.).
Happy Birthday t’ya. I’ll raise a glass of our fine Canadian water in your honour.
It’s his way of dealing with the crisis in the health system. Kill off a third of the population, thereby reducing waiting lists by a third. Or even more, seeing as the old and the already ill will be the first to capitulate.
Gormless is a genius.
Oh and happy birthday 🙂
My apologies for my absence, but I was off getting quietly inebriated.
Thank you all for your good wishes 🙂
KevanB – You are bringing back memories now! My first full time job [48 hour week] paid me the princely sum of £500 a year, gross. But then a pint was around 3/3p which is around 13c nowadays.
Baino – Why do you think we spend so much time in the pubs? It’s the only safe place to get a liquid intake!
Caro – You could well be right. This government seems determined to kill us all off, one way or another…