Council bosses have come up with a hole new “nanny state” way of getting people to cut their salt intake.
In time for National Salt Awareness Week starting next Monday, 13 chip shops in one town have been given shakers with only five holes instead of the usual 17 or 18.
The six-week trial run is going ahead in Rochdale, which has the UK’s third-highest death rate from heart disease and strokes.
Councillor Wera Hobhouse claimed the new shakers would mean “everybody was a winner”.
She said: “They are healthier for customers, as too much salt increases blood pressure and the risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke. Also, chip shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs save money because less salt is wasted and their food tastes just as good or better.”
But MPs and campaigners last night attacked the council for using nanny state tactics. “This is the sort of nannying that really irritates Britons,” said David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth. “Too much salt is bad for you, so why not educate people and let them make a free choice?”
The scheme took months of planning and cost thousands of pounds to set up and Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This would be laughable if the money it wasted was not so sorely needed elsewhere.”
Anti-political correctness campaigner Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, West Yorkshire, said: “All that will happen is chips will get cold in Rochdale as hungry folk try to get a decent amount of salt on to their supper.”
**Oh where to start, there are just so many points that need to be covered. First off is it really the states place to be running a "National Salt Awareness Week"? We all know that to much salt, or anything else is bad for us so why waste taxpayers money stating the bleeding obvious.
As for councils getting involved well that says several things, the first being that the council has far to many staff sitting about with very little to do and so they have to get involved in "projects" like this.
It also shows the way that people in power like the good councilor Wera Hobhouse (who I assumed was a Labour type but is in fact a Lib Dem and just as nannying as any Labour employee) have developed a taste for nannying the people after ten years of socialist rule. The disease comes from national government and councils are more than happy to pass on the waste.
Is spending thousands of pounds altering a salt shaker the best way to spend peoples hard earned money? If anything it shows a complete contempt for the taxpayers.
I would also assume that the good voters of Rochdale are a bit more concerned with their council tax being wasted on five hole salt cellars rather than the bins being emptied once a week and the schools being run properly, the sort of things that councils should stick to.
Maybe the good voters of Rochdale should kick her out on her ear come next election time...
Mind even if the money for this project came from national government that still does not make it excusable, same points apply about nannying, dictating, waste and having to many staff with far to little to do to fill their days.
Tags: New Labour, nanny state, Cool Britannia, national salt week, fuckwittery
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I tried commenting yesterday, but it wasn't working, so trying again.
I yearn for the day when governments just tell us to warn about the dangers of something "Google it you lazy morons" and focus on getting teachers to actually teach us valuable, useful information.
That would be good an better for the taxpayers, although the number of unemployed would leap up as millions of bone idle state employees were thrown out on their collective ear.
That said 99.99999% of state employees do nothing, make nothing and contribute nothing what so ever.
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