The Nanny State’s Work Is Never Done
The latest news from the UK is that the Home Office is busying itself with a new pub glass design, the reason for which is to stop glasses from being used as weapons in pub brawls.
The new vessel would be made of shatter-proof plastic because “official figures show 5,500 people are attacked with glasses and bottles every year in England and Wales.”
As one blog commenter said, “If you’re too young to drink from a glass mug safely, you’re too young to be drinking in a pub.”
A representative from the British Beer and Pub Association hopes the new plastic glasses will not become compulsory for a variety of reasons, including extra costs during a recession and the possibility that the quality of the beer or ale would be compromised. This is key because the Brits take their pub experience seriously. A ruined pint is sacrilege.
The designer of the new glass gave a poignant reminder: “Remember that years ago people used to drink out of pewter tankards. It could be quite a significant paradigm shift.”
Yes, but that was because the people themselves, along with industrial advances that made glassware cheaper and more plentiful, engineered that change — not a nanny state obsessed with running citizens’ lives.
Will restaurants and private citizens next be told that they must use plasticware and paper plates? Heaven forbid someone cuts himself or drops a plate that might shatter and create an unsafe situation.
This is how tax dollars are spent in the UK? Remember the town council that spent £2,000 creating and distributing salt shakers with fewer holes in the tops to fish-and-chip shops in an attempt to curb how much customers salt their food?
It’s now official: the British bulldog has no teeth. He’ll have to gum his kibble.
Well..if you wonder whats next, here´s the thing. The European Union is proposing legislation on..
…HOW TO TAKE A SHOWER.
Not a joke, those overpaid buerocrats are really preparing laws on how to take a shower. Welcome to the soft tyranny of the nanny state.
Source (in german):
http://ef-magazin.de/2009/09/03/1456-eudssr-nach-dem-gluehbirnenverbot-nun-will-die-eu-regeln-fuers-duschen-festlegen
It is a sad fact that this present government is obsessed with the control of our population. Plastic glasses are one of their more reasonable measures. With the police no longer working to serve and protect, but to reach targets set by the government, their time is taken up chasing trivialities. It takes too many man hours to police the streets and pubs at night where trouble starts but if a child of a harassed parent drops an apple core on the pavement (sidewalk), that parent is arrested and charged. Score one for the police. They are told to have a zero tolerance policy to any Europe inspired new crimes(nannyisms), such as selling goods in pounds and ounces as opposed to the European metric system, while ignoring more serious crimes which are harder to solve. So, rather then fight the yobbishness displayed by a few weekend binge drinkers, plastic glasses are being introduced. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Follow this process further, Zaza, cos you aint seen nothing yet
Hmmm…. I’m against almost all of the “Nanny State” antics of the European countries but I don’t think introducing plastic glasses as a substitute for real glasses in pubs and bars is one to get worked up about.
As an Irishman I……not too surprisingly…….have had my fair share of nights on the town and seeing someone taking a glass to the face in a brawl is not something I’d recommend to anyone with a weak constitution. There are surprisingly few other available weapons readily to hand in a pub should an impromptu fight break out.
Also, pubs on a Friday and Saturday night (in Ireland and the UK anyway) tend to get pretty packed which means plenty of dropped drinks resulting in glass strewn floors.
I don’t think the authors attempt to equate introducing plastic glasses in public houses full of drunks (mainly drunken and “enthusiatic” youths) with the nanny state attempts to invade the home and tell us how we should live our lives is correct on this occassion.
I’d prefer my pints in a glass but I wouldn’t sweat the change. I suspect the A&E wards would welcome the change too.
Whereas what we Brits should be doing, if we were a civilised country, is liberalising all our gun laws so that our murder rate, so sadly lagging behind America at present, stands a decent chance of catching up.
Hmm. I thought plastic (bottles, bags, piping etc) was evil…
Keep on perpetrating the myth, Chris. It makes you feel better, doesn’t it?
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28582.html
‘The new vessel would be made of shatter-proof plastic because “official figures show 5,500 people are attacked with glasses and bottles every year in England and Wales.” As one blog commenter said, “If you’re too young to drink from a glass mug safely, you’re too young to be drinking in a pub.”’
Quite a non sequitur here. The “blog commenter” probably meant, If you’re too young to protect yourself from someone coming at you with a shard of glass, you’re too young to be drinking in a pub.
Sippy cups, that’s what’s next.
Thank goodness in the US we can handle our booze and don’t need to be treated like babies. Also please spare me on how the uk is so superior to the US. You all have sold your souls and manhoods to the nanny state. Go drink your little beers from your govt issued sippy cups and shut up!
- Burkas (same reason)…
3. Tony R, why do you Euros drink so much? Are that, and sex, the only freedoms that your masters still allow you?
What a sick continent.
What’s next?
1. Get all the peasants micro-chipped like dogs so the government can keep track of them.
2. Sterilize them all except those approved by the Fertility Board.
3. Give the ignorant yobs an allowance and nice safe places to amuse themselves.
to
J4140:
Thank goodness in the US we can handle our booze and don’t need to be treated like babies…
—————————
Funny that you mention this. correct me if i´m wrong but is it not the US where you have to be 21 to legal have a cold one in a bar. so you are old enought to die in Iraq but your government says you are too young to drink a beer back home. so much for treated like babies my friend.
There is only one thing to say to you Chris as a fellow Brit and that is GROW UP moonbat.
11. Calvin Ball
“Tony R, why do you Euros drink so much? Are that, and sex, the only freedoms that your masters still allow you?
What a sick continent.”
Yes, thats right Calvin, we’re all alcoholic sex-fiends over here. Well done. And thank you for the completely unnecessary insult – clearly you are an undoubted paragon of virtue and decency compared to us sickos.
It’s been tried before…
We just started hitting each other with chairs.
The Nanny State wishes to nerfcoat the world. Except no one is guaranteed invulnerability. Not in the real world.
The problem is that (so far) they haven’t managed to nerfcoat human predators. All they have managed is to give the big and strong the ability to do what they want because the weak can not resist them. The government’s response? Don’t defend yourself, run away or get on your knees and beg. Tell me, how secure can one be in that case? The police can come and take their reports.
I am a non practicing historian, and I have always wished to go to Europe to see the history I have read about all my life. I never will now. My knees are too old to get down on.
Michael,come to the UK and see the history. I have lived for 66 years without becoming a victim. The violence is, for the most part, limited to the nastier parts of big cities, and then at night. As in any big city throughout the world, reasonable care is all you need.
What next for We the People? Adult sippy cups?
Beer in plastic tastes like crap.
That is all.
1. Ban opposable thumbs.
2. ban frontal lobes.
3. ban backbones and spines.
Man I’d be pissed if I was a Brit. I’ve run out of beer mugs & pint glasses (yeah I was lazy on the dishes) and had to drink my beer out of a plastic cup and acrylic cups. Its just not the same.
The best way to drink a beer is out of chilled pint glass or mug that is actually glass.