Brits Protest Over Health Warnings

[Rebel Rose]

British columnists have been protesting EU restrictions, label warnings, and taxes on wine for a while now, but the opinion pieces are getting really fun to read now as tempers rise . . .

The Nanny state should put a cork in it over drinking

That winning combo of the Home Office and the Department of Health, cheered from the sidelines by the po-faced British Medical Association, has in its stern sights the middle-aged, middle-class delinquents among us who dare to sneak a crafty Merlot in the comfort of our own homes.

With all the militancy of latter-day prohibitionists, ministers claim that one in every six adults has some kind of drink problem -and of particular concern is the older drinker who might quaff an entire bottle of wine over dinner without thought for its effect.

We are, therefore, to be "targeted", which is another way of saying that they plan to take £10 million of our money to tick us off about it.

Who thought of health warnings on wine?

As I prepared my continental bombing raid, I could see my target in my imagination.

That's right: it was some Swedish divorcee health commissioner, sitting in her velour slacks in her taupe-coloured office in the Breydel building, Brussels; and I could just imagine the imperious set of her jaw as she put down her glass of Badoit and prepared to Mont Blanc her initials under the EU edict that alcohol was henceforward to be clearly labelled as a poison; and in my rage I reached for another lunchtime glass of Mazis-Chambertin 2000, to fortify myself for the rigours of composing my column, and I can tell you that it was with all bomb bays fully loaded that I arrived at my desk; and I was on the very point of launching the great Brussels-busting task force when I paused.

I had a spasm of journalistic scruple. I picked up the phone. I made a couple of calls to check that this bêtise was indeed the product of the European Alcohol Action Programme, launched in 2005; and after about an hour's research I sat back in a state of amazement.

No, my friends, I must be honest, and I must tell you that this piece of nonsense was not generated in Brussels. It is entirely home grown.

It is the British Department of Health, in Whitehall, that wants a new label on every bottle of wine and every other alcoholic beverage, with a load of baloney about the risks to unborn children (not very great, frankly), the need to drink "responsibly", the websites of various "drink awareness" organisations, and a load of bunkum about the piffling number of "units" the Government thinks a man and a woman can drink "responsibly" every week.

Squiffy, I can guess from the context, but what does po-faced mean?

[JeanneCake]

I wondered about that phrase too - I'd seen it in a Maeve Binchy novel so your question prompted me to search google for a british slang "dictionary" where I learned that "po-faced" means Glum, melancholy, long-faced

[Rebel Rose]

Ah hah. Po-Faced. I shall have to practice this!

[SBonner]

First it was the lager louts now it's the middle aged. Where will it end?

Stephen