to think WTF government?! stop backtracking!

[NotYoMomma]

Is it just me or is this just a government of talk?

plain packaged cigarettes - big deal made, now not happening despite academic evidence that it can reduce smoking rates

Minimum pricing on alcohol - big deal made, now not happening.

Michael Gove announces things every week and I just cant see them happening. banning packed lunch is so not practical! plus the fact everything he does announce doesnt apply to free schools or academies

awarding train contracts then having to backpedal and virgin stepping in.

it just seems to be all talk all the time.

also talk about stopping tax avoidance but not actually changing any loopholes

it seems if it doesn't benefit the big companies it doesnt matter.

surely public health should come before considering profit margins for drink and tabbacco companies. its generally the poorer areas that suffer the most from cigarette related cancers and alcoholism

I agree that the Government is mostly talk, some of what they propose couldn't be done, especially around issues such as immigration.

I don't agree with minimum pricing on alcohol, when drink gets expensive, people switch to cheap cider, which is more damaging than a decent spirit.

I don't think that putting cigs in plain packets will make a difference, the closing of the shutters in supermarkets is just stupid, tbh, although it does make it look like smoking isn't a given norm, i suppose.

From what i know the research is mixed, i would like to think they are following research, but they are probably not, it just wasn't a popular decision.

they are sad popularity tarts,

So they just say what ever they think people want to hear, rather than basing anything on reality, scientific research or logic.

When the actual information is analysed it quickly becomes apparent how stupid and pointless the earlier pronouncements were.

They behave like small children when experts point out the errors in thinking, and put their hands over their ears and make a jamming noise,

Unfortunately we are funding and paying for their non learning curve.

Every cabinet formed by a government should have at least six qualified scientist, more really, people capable of understanding complex situations, it would save a lot of time and money.

But as they watch the Canadian governments antics they will probably try to attempt to implement similar.

Going backwards fast.

I just think how much money would have been wasted on these schemes and ideas for then to say 'actually it doesnt matter'

it panics people when they are bloody stupid ideas and Experts seem to be voicibg concerns constantly.

why announce it and then ask the experts, or wait until they are up in arms, why not do that first?

it just makes them look like muppets

And there's no downside for them.

Justine Greening sneaks out the back door scot free having clearly been in charge of the Virgin trains fiasco.

Scientific advisers are routinely ignored.

We are repeatedly told people, apparently can't defend themselves in their own home under current English law, despite there only having been 6 or so prosecutions in the last 20 years of homeowners defending themselves and now the Big Brave Conservatives are going to ride to our rescue with shiny new legislation.

And so it goes.

Blah, blah, bollocks, blah.

We need a law that only those who have worked ten years in a non-political job may enter politics.

There are too many born in wealth/straight to Eton/to Oxbridge/to Parliament career politicians, who have barely set foot in the real world, amongst the ordinary people they are elected and paid to represent.

Absolutely agree wanderings
Far too many u-turns, there is "listening to the public" and plain not thinking through anything they propose.
birdsgotofly I thought the whole point of a minimum price on alcohol was to put up the price of cheap cider, but NOT to touch the price on more expensive alcohol.
As for plain tobacco packaging, it may possibly reduce the number of smokers but from the point of view of a retailer, I am SO relived - the very thought of hunting under the counter for yet another plain white packet of cigarettes is a nightmare!