A jaundiced view of life from the darkest recess of the saloon bar...
All those who value choice, liberty and enjoying a pint should resist the killjoys’ war on “boozy Britain,” says Tim Black, who points out the rank snobbery and contempt for the lower orders that lies behind much of contemporary anti-drink policy.
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"The era of big, bossy, state interference, top-down lever pulling is coming to an end." (David Cameron, 2008)
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." (H. L. Mencken)
"The final nails have now been hammered into the coffin of the freedom to smoke in enclosed public places. This piece of legislation must be one of the most restrictive, spiteful and socially divisive imposed by any British Government." (Lord Stoddart of Swindon)
"Raising taxes on alcohol to prevent problem drinking is akin to raising the price of gasoline to prevent people from speeding." (Edward Peter Stringham)
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (C. S. Lewis)
"People who deal only in 'craft' beer do not care about some dirty old pub and the dirty old people who are in it and the dirty old community that it holds together." (Boozy Procrastinator)
"The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies." (Robert Conquest)
"A Puritan is someone who lives in mortal fear that somewhere, sometime, someone is enjoying himself." (H. L. Mencken)
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!" (Hunter S. Thompson)
"No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home at Weston-super-Mare." (Kingsley Amis)
"When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves,
For you will have lost the last of England." (Hilaire Belloc)
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Any proposals of marriage will be given serious consideration - there must be some cash-strapped drunk cat ladies out there!
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Man the barricades. ?????????
ReplyDeleteWith what shall we man them,
with froth snifferes ,telly boys,
mummy's boys, F1 petrol heads,
sporties,wimmins trolley pushers,
playstation commandos,the blogging
Samurai,nappy changers and other
low mileage mutants.
Accept it, the Puritans and Levellers are on a winning streak,
no opposition,,,,,live with it,
.
Scherazade
Anon: how pathetic ~ as always.
ReplyDeleteAlcohol advocacy really is doomed if it gets linked to the kind of nutters who write for Spiked.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years I've come across a lot of sense on Sp!ked both on alcohol policy and other aspects of the erosion of freedom in this country – which is why I have a link to the site in the sidebar.
ReplyDeleteRed Nev
ReplyDelete"how pathetic - as allways".
touchy are'nt we,?
Wonder why ?
Anon's shadow
I shall man the bar in my favourite watering hole and consume copious amounts of ale...then I shall guzzle more just for the sake of it until my speech is slurred and my legs are like rubber...then with one last effort I shall neck a pint after saying Bottoms up to the health Nazis...in between each pint I shall stand outside in the snow..smoke a fag right down to the stub before blatently flicking it on to the floor...so there!.
ReplyDeleteAnnon ..you are a whipped little man!
Anon: I'm not at all touchy - just bored with your illiterate and nonsensical comments.
ReplyDeleteWhile you may not agree with the sentiment (and nobody is asking you to) I do feel this particular individual's contributions have an oddly poetic ring to them.
ReplyDeleteI am Stan
ReplyDelete" a whipped little man"
Nice comment Stan ,pity about the ending,bit short on depth.
Now then, our Red Nev,
"illererate and nonsensical comments" of course we should have known better to make comments
which differ from the accepted and
controlled mind set. What should we say,just the bits Nanny likes.
Curmudgeon, keep up the good work,
let all speak...........or none.
Anon(3)
Anon: I have no problem with views that differ from my own; it would be a boring world if we all thought the same. I'm not saying "how dare you say that", as you seem to think. It's more a matter of "why not make sense for a change?"
ReplyDelete"Accept it, the Puritans and Levellers are on a winning streak, no opposition"
ReplyDeleteSorry, Rednev, but this is to the heart of the matter.
Nice comment Stan
ReplyDeleteCheers Annon....