I Told You So

Forgive me for saying this, but I did tell you so.

Emboldened by their successes against the smokers, the health nazis are coming after the drinkers.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,,2191932,00.html

This is typical of the type of story that has been gathering momentum for a few months now.

No more is the villification reserved for the ASBO-draped, White Lightning-drinking, faux Burberry-wearing, car park inhabiting Chav motherfuckers so reviled for their alcohol-fuelled antisocial behaviour.

Oh, no ... the social fabric now has a new enemy: the wine swilling middle-classes. The opening salvoes in this assault have been fired, with health experts wheeled out on news programmes, declaring their wish to eliminate irresponsible drinking habits from the national character.

Let's be entirely clear on this:

If I wish to take what is left of my paltry pay packet, after the Government has deducted both tax and National Insurance (which is an 11% levy on my salary to ensure that I get NHS healthcare, amongst other things, before we forget) and spend that on wine, or vodka, or beer, and pay another massive Government levy in the form of duty ...

If I wish to be double taxed on purchasing a product that I know is bad for me, and then consume that product in my own home to the detriment of no-one but myself ...

If I wish to invite some of my friends round so that we can all sit at a table, enjoy a meal, and drink alcohol to excess, and do so without breaking any laws, have a pleasant evening and head home in taxis, presenting neither nuisance nor threat to anyone ...

Then why the fuck shouldn't I be allowed to do so? What fucking business is it of the Government what I do?

Worse yet is the positively disingenuous nature of some the arguments being put forward by the health lobby: particularly the one where it the costs of a particular unhealthy lifestyle, in this case drinking, are volunteered as a burden on society that must be eliminated.

As I have observed previously, this is dishonest in the extreme, since it assumes that if we all stopped doing things that were bad for us, we would live healthy and productive lives at no burden to the state until the happy day when we had the decency to drop dead in a tidy fashion at no expense to the system.

In truth, if the Government eliminated all drinking from society, then we could absolutely not take the number of alcohol-related deaths and simply remove from the healthcare equation. This is statistical dishonesty of the most disgraceful type.

Every single one of those people would still die of something. Some would die from cancer, some from Alzheimers, or Parkinsons, some of pneumonia, some would just get hit by buses ...

And every single one would incur a cost to the NHS. Do NOT try and tell me that you can simply eliminate drinking as a factor and then deduct the cost of that from the NHS bill. Drinkers or not, smokers or not, every single member of the general public is going to die sooner or later.

So, if I am going to take what little cash the Government allows me once they have finished with their deductions and blow it on a perfectly legal vice that generates additional revenue for the Treasury whilst significantly reducing the likelihood that I will require £1500+ per week of residential nursing care as I slide into senile decrepitude ...?

Why the fuck shouldn't I?

I didn't vote to put Puritans into Government. Trust me on this - if we don't fight them here, then they will be coming after chips, and cheeseburgers, and video games, and porn, two sugars in your tea, and not looking both ways before crossing the road, and climbing trees ...

Fuck off. I reserve the right to do shit that is bad for me because I enjoy it. If you don't like it, fine. Charge me for my healthcare at the point of delivery and give me my fucking taxes back.