Tough Love for the Scots.
When my dog became obese, unwilling to go for a walk, and still eating obsessively, I consulted the Vet.
‘Cut down his food’, she said. ‘Put it at the end of the garden so he has to walk to eat it. ‘
‘But he loves eating, he’s happy’, wailed I.
‘You have to be cruel to be kind’ said she. ‘You are the adult here’.
The BBC today reports that 97% of Scots are either overweight, unwilling to take exercise, or smoking and drinking to excess.
Should we not be cruel to be kind?
Rework the Barnet formula.
Scotland is now the most affluent country in the UK, according to a study which reveals that a decade of devolution has produced higher wages and less poverty and unemployment than in England.
It is irresponsible of us to be pushing so many drinking, smoking and eating vouchers north of the border, we have to help them slim down……
Discuss.
June 14, 2010 at 16:52
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A relatively small price to pay for never ever having to endure another
Labour government in Westminster.
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June 14, 2010 at 13:57
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Whatever.
I say give the Jocks most of the oil, and let them get on with it.
A relatively small price to pay for never ever having to endure another
Labour government in Westminster.
Of course after 10-15yrs of rule by Scottish Labour, they’ll be clamouring
to be let back in the Union.
- June 13, 2010 at 23:29
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Evening All,
Glad to see the people of the dis United Kingdom having a reasoned and
sensible debate. No negative national stereotypes on display nor any blantant
lies and abuse.
It seems to me the whole British Isles is getting more and more unhealthy
and the death rate in my fair country is a pretty good indicator that all is
not well with the health of the Scottish people.
I am finding the tone of the article blantantly one sided. The last time I
was in London, what few English people I did see, were often pikes, fatties
and jakies with the only exception being the high percentage of rather fine
looking ladies and blokes in suits talking to themselves.
- June 13, 2010 at 20:44
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Bugger, Iain’s only perceived as good because the rest of Scotland’s
journos are piss poor. He’s spent most of his working life referring to the
SNP as separatists.
He’s certainly willing to criticise the unionist opposition in Scotland but
only from a position as a unionist himself who is impatient with their
incompetence. Iain’s as British as Gordon McMental.
- June 13, 2010 at 15:22
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If anyone is interested in a reasoned response to the article, not directly
though, follow the link to Iain McWhirter’s article on the very subject.
Iain is one of the better, ore balanced true journalists left in Scotland
rather than a Labour propagandist; ask Anna about that.
He is no “friend” of the SNP either.
It is good, occasionally to replay Scotland vrs England occasionally but I
think McWhirter’s article nails a lot of it on the head.
My opinion is whatever the deepseated problems manifest in the health of
some elements of the Scottish people are also working away quietly in England
and Wales too.
Scotland, in particular the West is Labour’s fiefdom and they have allowed
this to happen; wickedly and deliberately to cement their seat of discontent
against the Tories ?
http://iainmacwhirter2.blogspot.com/2010/06/so-scots-have-death-wish.html
A good Sunday read.
- June 13, 2010 at 20:13
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Thanks for the link – very thoughtful stuff. Remove a man’s self-respect
– it’s one of the most insidious and potent weapons available to the
ungodly.
- June 13, 2010 at 15:08
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Nothing will change untill the English political parties and trade unions
stop subsidising Scottish politics. Scotland would then disappear out of
England’s way in a very short space of time
- June 13, 2010 at 15:06
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I would suggest that the remaining 3% are either liars, or miserable
bastards with whom you wouldn’t want to spend any time.
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June 13, 2010 at 22:28
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but not charlie chesters
- June 14, 2010 at 15:25
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Just sweaty socks.
- June 13, 2010 at 14:08
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I see this squeak from the health Nazis somewhat differently. If 97% might
drop dead at any minute and clearly are not, use it as further leverage to
call time on the nanny state nonsense and the misapplication of
statistics.
“97% of Scots are either overweight, unwilling to take exercise, or smoking
and drinking to excess.” just means that 97% of people polled don’t accord
with the opinion of the health mullahs. The cumulative figure is
preposterous scaremongering because it can include many people who are in no
way liable to drop dead from being what is alleged to be unhealthy. Such a
varied set of measurements collated together is about as much use as saying
100% of people polled answered the questions.
Why take exercise if you’re not fat?
Why care if you are overweight but muscular? I would guess a lot of
professional Rugby League players would be classed as overweight but you
wouldn’t say it to their face! The BMI categories were arbitrarily reduced too
iirc.
The only people even remotely at risk would be the 20% who drink, smoke,
are overweight and don’t do any exercise but I guess these days a mere 20% of
the population isn’t headline grabbing enough.
- June 13, 2010 at 17:47
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To: Alan June 13, 2010 at 14:08,
A very good common-sense analysis. I agree mostly with what you have
written. However, you cannot deny that in the socialist heartlands of
scotopia, the English cash pipeline has created a morbidly fascinating
subclass of humanity to keep sociologists and anthropologists squirming in
discomfort for years.
- June 13, 2010 at 13:19
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Why not ask the IDF to blockade Scotland.
Sure I remember some Israeli pol going on about putting Palestinians on a
diet…
Maybe it’ll work for the Jocks as well.
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June 13, 2010 at 09:27
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It’s all a bit odd as Mr Ishmael rightly points out ‘Scotland, best part of
England’. The scenery is fantastic but the thought of getting on a bus and
walking home through some of the most splendid territory on that place we call
‘the fucking planet’ seems alien to them. Most odd.
(OT – uurrgghh Harmen going on about duty – or should that be duddee’ –
odious creature.
- June 13, 2010 at 08:45
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Scottish Cuisine
Click the links below for some mouth-watering pictures of high scottish
cuisine:
(recommended you do so on an empty stomach)
and the piece de resistance …
(thanks to Old Holborn who in turn got it from a blogger called Jared
Earle)
OH’s original post
Jared
Earle’s well researched and detailed thesis on Munchy Boxes
P.S.
To be fair, we English can’t really take the high ground with great
confidence. What do countries south of us (the french, say?) think of our
numerous fish ‘n chips, kebab shops, McDonalds, Kentuckies etc?
-
June 13, 2010 at 22:34
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parrot remember when the standing joke in scotland was to tell an
englishman a haggis was a bird with one short leg to run round the hills
.
well the newest joke on the english is deep fried mars bars nobody eats
them but the english aways ready to believe the worst swallow the
bait.
their take the piss out of you.
- June 13, 2010 at 03:31
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i think a lot scotlands, health problems stem from having only a 5,000,000
population, the reason i say that is because a friend, worked in a local
hospital records office and they asked questions about relatives etc, might be
something to do with the gene pool, anyway,i bide here and i,m happy
- June 13, 2010 at 00:19
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“It’s never difficult to differentiate between a ray of sunshine and a
Scotsman with a grievance” (PGW)
- June 13, 2010 at 13:05
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ah, PGW the noted Nazi.
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June 13, 2010 at 20:07
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Defended by Orwell though. Even MI5 said he was daft but innocent.
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June 13, 2010 at 22:23
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caratacus a comment englishmen come out with when their feeling sad
,
its usually because they relise no other nation likes them
- June 12,
2010 at 22:38
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Oh dearie me. Bad, bad Scotland full of obese, drunken individuals unable
to walk to the fridge. What an image. The MSM haven’t mentioned the report
comparing Glasgow and Liverpool where habits are the same yet Glasgow still
has a much bigger mortality problem. I’ve just done a wee bit about that for
the morning.
Strangely there’s no mention of drugs and that’s where the problems are in
my neck of the woods. I suspect Scotland has the biggest drug habit too.
- June 12, 2010 at 20:29
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Just stop deep frying those Mars bars in batter.
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June 12, 2010 at 19:32
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You didn’t send food vouchers though! You sent the advance guard of the
Armies of the Clean of Thought. And they cleansed. So I did a body swerve and
moved to Engerland where the food is indeed good (if cooked in fine Normand
butter) and the game of kicky-ball is played by teams that can indeed see the
ball and kick it upon it’s intended path i.e. along the ground.
Sorry, getting carried away with yon rib eye to be cooked whilst I watch
the footie.
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June 14, 2010 at 00:04
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brownian english goalkeepers eh how the scots and the rest of the world
laughed
- June 12, 2010 at 18:59
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Munter, after you have finished paying us back the investment we made to
get that stuff out of the ground. Why is it you Jocks have to drag that stuck
old record out every time?
- June 12, 2010 at 20:31
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You didn’t make the investment, the oil companies did that.
Moreover the deal done was quick fix to get the oil flowing and the
royalties in HM Treasury as quick as possible. Great deals for the oil
companies.
The Norwegians did it all themselves and that is why they have a
humungous sovereign oil fund; something we have not as the revenues were
pissed down the Thames and into the City.
- June 12, 2010 at 20:45
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More over pissed down welfare and other leftie follies.
- June 12, 2010 at 23:03
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BP. It stands for British Petroleum. It was a substantially Government
owned business until Thatcher.
I think you’ll find that the British Taxpayer (and therefore
approximately 90% of them English) funded the exploration, hardware and
transportation costs of ALL North Sea oil.
Please make cheques payable to E. Viking, and no, I won’t accept
haggis, whisky or porridge instead.
- June 12, 2010 at 23:23
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Eh?
It wasn’t a nationalised industry and taxpayers didn’t fund its
operating costs or costs of exploration, in the same way HM Government
didn’t pocket the profits. HM Government only had a share of the capital
and prolly benefitted from that too.
From above BBC article:
“The Scottish results are similar to those in a recent survey of
English behaviour, and suggest both nations are more unhealthy than many
European countries, and even North America. ”
Ooh dear are we copying the jocks?
- June 13, 2010 at 18:07
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From Wikipedia
BP did NOT finance the exploration and extraction of North Sea Oil.
It was auctioned off to various oil companies!
The UK Continental Shelf Act came into force in May 1964. Seismic
exploration and the first well followed later that year. It and a
second well on the Mid North Sea High were dry, as the Rotliegendes
was absent, but BP’s Sea Gem rig struck gas in the West Sole field in
September 1965.[4] The celebrations were short-lived because the Sea
Gem sank with the loss of 13 lives after part of the rig collapsed as
it was moved away from the discovery well.[4] Larger gas finds
followed in 1966 – Leman Bank, Indefatigable and Hewett, but by 1968
companies had lost interest in further exploration of the British
sector, a result of a ban on gas exports and low prices offered by the
only buyer, British Gas.[4] West Sole came onstream in May 1967.[4]
Licensing regulations for Dutch waters were not finalised until
1967.
The situation was transformed in December 1969, when Phillips
Petroleum discovered oil in Chalk of Danian age at Ekofisk, in
Norwegian waters in the central North Sea.[4] The same month, Amoco
discovered the Montrose field about 217 km (135 miles) east of
Aberdeen.[4] BP had been awarded several licences in the area in the
second licensing round late in 1965, but had been reluctant to work on
them.[4] The discovery of Ekofisk prompted them to drill what turned
out to be a dry hole in May 1970, followed by the discovery of the
giant Forties oilfield in October 1970.[4] The following year, Shell
Expro discovered the giant Brent oilfield in the northern North Sea
east of Shetland. Oil production started from the Argyll field (now
Ardmore) in June 1975[5] followed by Forties in November of that
year.[6]
A ‘Statfjord’ Gravity base structure under construction in
Norway. Almost all of the structure was submerged.
Volatile weather conditions in Europe’s North Sea have made
drilling particularly hazardous, claiming many lives. The conditions
also make extraction a costly process; by the 1980s, costs for
developing new methods and technologies to make the process both
efficient and safe, far exceeded NASA’s budget to land a man on the
moon.[7] The exploration of the North Sea has been a story of
continually pushing the edges of the technology of exploitation (in
terms of what can be produced) and later the technologies of discovery
and evaluation (2-D seismic, followed by 3-D and 4-D seismic; sub-salt
seismic; immersive display and analysis suites and supercomputing to
handle the flood of computation required). [citation needed]
The largest field discovered in the past 25 years is Buzzard, found
in June 2001 with producible reserves of almost 64
- June 13, 2010 at 23:57
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dont you aways bristol
- June 13, 2010 at 13:04
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Bollox
Any money that BP borrowed would not have come from the taxpayer, as
it would have been raised in the City.
When BP was privatised the discounted future cash flows fro the oil
revenues would have been incorporated into the cost of the shares.
So, remember that the North Sea had more reserves than Kuwait, and
still has a lot more than they are admitting. Factor in the known oil
reserves off the west coast of Scotland, albeit in deep water and the
bounty is still extremely substantial. These new offshore reserves are
fingers ofthe sub Arctic mega reserves that Canada, USA, Russia, Norway
and Denmark are trying to divide up.
If Scotland is such a drain on Mother England, how come all the main
Union parties are dead against Scotland leaving the Union.
Altruism, I think not.
I will give you three reasons;
Oil, wind power and wave power.
You can keep your EDF nuclear power plants in Engerland, thank you
very much.
I accept Paypal but no mushy peas.
- June 13, 2010 at 14:44
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You must keep off the juice, it’s fuddling your mind. The roots of
the company that is now BP go back to 1907, and that company was
entirely Gov funded. BP was partially funded by the taxpayer until
full privatisation with Thatcher.
That Unionist parties are called Unionist is a bit of a giveaway as
to why they don’t want to ditch Scotland.
Most English I know don’t care one way or another, and neither do
most Jocks either, apparently, as they have a Nationalist Government
but no referendum on leaving the Union.
There must be a bit of Jock blood in me, because I hate mushy peas
too.
- June 13, 2010 at 18:08
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The Unionist bit actually refers to N Ireland
- June 13, 2010 at 18:09
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United Kingdom – The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC
– formerly the Department of Trade and Industry) grants licences. The
UKCS (United Kingdom Continental Shelf) is divided into quadrants of 1
degree latitude and one degree longitude. Each quadrant is divided
into 30 blocks measuring 10 minutes of latitude and 12 minutes of
longitude. Some blocks are divided further into part blocks where some
areas are relinquished by previous licensees. For example, block
13/24a is located in quad 13 and is the 24th block and is the ‘a’ part
block. The UK government has traditionally issued licences via
periodic (now annual) licensing rounds. Blocks are awarded on the
basis of the work programme bid by the participants. The UK government
has actively solicited new entrants to the UKCS via “promote”
licensing rounds with less demanding terms and the fallow acreage
initiative, where non-active licences have to be relinquished.
- June 13, 2010 at 22:13
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will you accept jellied eels
- June 13, 2010 at 22:20
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english viking your too stupid to be scots but dumb enough to be a
charlie {glasgow slang for an englishman charlie chester=child
molester]
- June 13, 2010 at 22:39
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viking thats only one company french and german companies invested
more
what about accepting slimy eels is that not a favoured dish in
charlie chester land
- June 14, 2010 at 12:04
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And you call me Stupid?
Concentrate on what you’re good at (which is obviously not
spelling, punctuation or syntax), getting bong-eyed on Special Brew
and wife-beating. If you haven’t got a wife (I wouldn’t be surprised)
you can just assault the nearest female, but you need to be careful as
quite a lot of male porridge-gobblers wear skirts.
- June 12, 2010 at 18:27
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Oh you are kind but really, just send back our billions in North sea oil
revenues and you generous people can use all the “vouchers” yourselves.
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June 12, 2010 at 21:45
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Didn’t realise Scotland owned the North Sea. Anyway, think of the
billions your crooked/incompetent MP’s (McRuin, Darling, etc) who have
lost/p*ssed away our billions.
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June 13, 2010 at 22:11
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they do own the Scottish waters as England has it waters different laws
,look it up
- June 14, 2010 at 10:11
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“…as England has it waters different laws ,look it up”
What???????
Try typing that again, this time in English. Just a thought, it maybe
a little easier if you took the enormous chip off your shoulder
first.
- June 12, 2010 at 18:02
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There is certainly a case for cutting off Holyrood’s telephone lines to
Westminster. Bring in as many illiberal laws up there as they like, just keep
their daft ideas as far away from our gullible MPs as possible.
- June 12, 2010 at 17:46
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English Viking, it is when it is deep fried and served with a side order of
chips.
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June 12, 2010 at 17:16
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Is it possible to get fat on porridge?
- June 13, 2010 at 11:15
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It’s porage.
{ 48 comments }