Sunday, December 2, 2012

Karmic balance...

Temperance, a strange sort of condition practiced by those who cannot cope with the effects of alcohol and meddling busybodies who wish to run our lives for us (for our own good, well that;'s what they say) it had its hay day in the declining days of the 19th century in this country, though hung on in the USA until it caused major issues with prohibition and the cycle of crime resulting from that madness.
Express.
THE owner of Britain’s last surviving Temperance bar has been banned from driving for 17 months after he admitted drink-driving.
Christopher Law, 52, owns the 122-year-old Fitzpatrick’s bar in Rawtenstall, Lancs, which has sold health remedies and non-alcoholic drinks such as sarsaparilla or dandelion and burdock since 1890.
Temperance bars originated in Lancashire in the late 19th century, opened by teetotal Methodists advocating abstinence from alcohol and often asking their patrons to sign a no-alcohol pledge.
Thing is, the temperance movement seems to have survived within the NHS and  the imaginary 'units' scheme someone plucked from thin air which decides whether you're a good or bad risk depending on which side of the line you're on. Doesn't matter that you're fit and healthy and have a greater tolerance for alcohol, nor that imbibing occasionally is good for you. No, if you drink, you're 'evil' and cost the NHS money, even when you don't.
I'm rapidly coming to the belief that only those who take out from the NHS in that they don't contribute to it via taxation should have to face any sort of questioning as to their lifestyle, the rest of us who do pay in ought to have the right to tell them to bugger off with the lifestyle questioning and just repair the damage. After all, whose money is it anyway?
What happens though is that these people never give up, even when proven time and time again that their guesses are just that, guesses. If they can find a way to interfere they'll grasp it with both hands and if necessary wrap their thighs around it too and simply will not let go no matter what. Not because they want to help, but because it means control, it justifies their petty existence and allows them to make someone's life a misery to boot.
In the end it's all about control and it won't stop until we put them up against the wall and shoot them.
Chances are though that will just clear the decks for the next generation of prodnoses.

4 annotations:

JuliaM said...

"... the rest of us who do pay in ought to have the right to tell them to bugger off with the lifestyle questioning.."

Whenever anyone's started in on that line with me, that's EXACTLY what I've done!

Durotrigan said...

QM, I apologise for being off-topic, but do you happen to know when the next Shotton Colliery demo is scheduled, or is this date still under wraps for the moment?

Quiet_Man said...

Hasn't been announced yet. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Stonyground says:

Has anyone picked up on the latest moral panic? Shops are now selling skimpy party costumes to little girls. Oh noes, it is absolutely compulsory that we buy them. No? Oh well other people who don't know any better will buy them. And, since every single male on the planet is a potential peadophile, there will be a total moral collapse. All kinds of self important talking heads are being wheeled out to express their highly educated opinions, along with the horrified vox-pops. It's the end of the world as we know it.