A Fridge too Far.

Apparently there is a new evil lurking in our midst. It's to do with the middle classes' subversive habit of drinking wine at home in secret. |It's believed there are many people drinking at home beyond the safe limits which will potentially lead to problems in the future for the health service and their own well-being. The government is very concerned and have produced adverts giving the appropriate advice to these wayward people for their own good...... Hold on minute.

Are these reprobates the same people who get up every morning to go to work  without complaint to keep the country going and whose taxes pay for the unemployed, the disabled, the NHS and defence budgets? The very people who provide the funds for MPs to have their duck ponds cleaned and the EU gravy train? Could these delinquents be the same people whose entrepreneurial skills the government is relying upon to bail us out of the financial mire their raging incompetence has managed to get us into? Surely they can't be the wanton villains who put their houses on the line and often work seven days a week to make a crust trying to improve themselves or perhaps the people suffering increasing workloads and mounting stress levels because there's no money and 'we are all in it together' whose only oasis of calm is the evenings at home?  The people who celebrate another day of not being killed on the roads, injured in a random accident or not contracting one of a thousand deadly diseases and preparing to do it all again tomorrow for no thanks? 

Picture the scene if you can, a trench in WW1 with British soldiers caked in mud; tired, weary and frightened.
Colonel; Hello Tommy.
Tommy; Morning sir.
Colonel; Tommy, those chaps from the Home Office have put their heads together and decided that all that strong, sweet tea the lads  drink isn't good for them. All that tannin, caffeine and sugar makes them jittery and their teeth will fall out.
Tommy; Yes sir, well they would know best sir.
Colonel; Exactly Tommy so they have changed your supplies to reflect this. You do realise it's for your own good?
Tommy; Yes of course sir. It's nice to know they have our best interests at heart sir.
Colonel; Excellent, I'm sure you'll find the ginseng and peppermint replacement beneficial. Now when you've finished your tea break, you and the lads will need to pop over the top to face a hail of red hot, deadly German lead. 

To add insult to injury, the implication is that these misguided fools are shutting their curtains and indulging in their sordid, guilty little secret away from prying eyes, I think not. Are they all surreptitously brewing moonshine in the garden shed? No, they are getting it from Tesco and Morrisons' the same as everyone else  and paying the relevant exorbitant tax. It's no secret. We are even pressured to put the empty bottles out for the bin man so your neighbours can pop out for a count up to see how they compare. Trying to lay a guilt trip on the very people who are the givers to society rather than the takers seems like a clumsy and desperate attempt at social engineering, but to what purpose?

The only reason that I can think of for the Government being interested in the contents of my fridge or wine rack is because of potential future savings to the NHS should I fall ill in later years due to alcohol related illness.  I would respectfully suggest that they consider more pressing needs that need their attention such as NHS tourism or whole towns laid waste by unemployment and endemic drugs culture with the resulting physical and mental illnesses that result. Have they considered the impact of diseases brought in by immigrants such as TB which we eradicated years ago but are now re-emerging. Have they thought about the impact of all the people now attending A&E for minor ailments because they can't see a GP or the amount of time taken up by all the emergency services because of their failure to deliver adequate ' care in the community' for the most needy. All these issues are far beyond the government will or capability to deal with so they have gone for the 'shooting a fish in a barrel' approach instead. A few glossy posters and honeyed words in the ears of people who actually bother to watch the news and, hey presto, we have a health policy. 

What the government are saying is that having a night off from drinking is good for you. In my view the world is a dangerous and unhealthy place where terrible things happen to people for no reason at all. When push comes to shove, the fact I abstained on a Tuesday and Thursday will make no difference at all the same way that buying a lottery ticket each week doesn't mean you'll ever win it. And, if you did win the abstinence lottery, what's the reward? 
An extra few years dribbling down your shirt in a care home. If they are serious about saving money they would be well advised to close down all those 'nanny' departments offering good advice and spend it on social services or extra GP's.

Anyone who knows me knows I like a drink and I'm not advocating drinking every night. However, if that's what you need to get out of bed and go 'over the top' every day. If it doesn't affect your short term health or relationships with your family then who are the government to send you on a guilt trip about it.  They may have grounds to nose around in the fridges and cupboards of those on benefits to see what they're spending their money on but if you're paying your way and not breaking the law or harming anyone else (I've never heard of passive drinking) then they should focus on the more pressing matters, in my view, it's a fridge too far. 



'With acknowledgement to the Simpsons for the title'