“We have a long way to go,” says Chris Boardman in response to a British Cycling survey which found that 93% of its members have safety concerns when riding on the road. British Cycling’s policy advisor will appear at a national government conference in Bristol today to speak of a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ to change the country for the better through investing in cycling.
Boardman was responding to a survey of British Cycling’s 100,000 members which revealed that 93% have safety concerns when riding on the road. In calling for more investment, he points to the government’s own studies which confirmed that investing in cycling gives a 5:1 return. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that now is a once in a lifetime opportunity to change this country for the better for us and our children.”
Cycling is an obvious solution to many current issues, he says – but one which demands investment.
“Obesity is not only killing 37,000 people in the UK every year, when all the effects are factored in, it’s costing us almost one billion pounds every week. A large part of the solution to this problem – not to mention pollution, congestion and social issues – is glaringly, frighteningly simple.
“For these problems to be solved, the solution needs to be invisible, built into our everyday lives, unnoticed. The solution is in how we move. British Cycling’s member survey highlights that, in this present moment, even regular cyclists are concerned for their safety on our roads. We have a long way to go."
Cycling Minister Robert Goodwill recently revealed that the Department for Transport currently allocates just 0.7% of its total budget to cycling despite around 2% of all journeys in Britain being made by bike. However, this looks set to rise as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will today announce £214m in cycling funding. The money will be divided between the Highways agency and eight cities which have previously received Cycle City Ambition funding.
However, Sustrans chief executive, Malcolm Shepherd, contrasted the amount being given to cycling with the £24 billion the coalition has earmarked for spending on roads. Both Sustrans and CTC have backed the call for annual investment in cycling of at least £10 per person.
In the British Cycling survey, the top hazards listed were unsafe road surfaces and vehicles overtaking too closely. Vehicles travelling too quickly and cycle lanes that are too narrow or which stop suddenly were also considered common problems. The top priority for British Cycling members was mutual respect between all road users, closely followed by the need for protected space on main roads.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
50 thoughts on “Solution to obesity, pollution, congestion and social issues is ‘glaringly, frighteningly simple’ says Boardman”
Im a bit of an evangelist
Im a bit of an evangelist with this book but its so glaringly obvious, you have to wonder what really are the true motives of those who can make a difference but wont.
The Energy Glut – Dr Ian Roberts & Phil Edwards
Theres a presentation on the book by the author thats 30 minutes long that explains the crux of the argument but if you dont have that long, then heres it explained in 6 minutes!
People are lazy, fat, and
People are lazy, fat, and ignorant- and that’s become socially acceptable – that’s the problem.
The solutions to all the problems on the whole planet can be solved if we just went vegan and rode our bikes more.
Its an all too inconvenient a truth for most to swallow. But it IS the truth.
” The momentum for not only cycling but veganism and vegetarianism is building, and we need to seize it and push for change. The synergy between the two is there: they offer two unique solutions to big problems across the planet.’
pmr wrote:People are lazy,
Couldn’t have put it better myself. Physical fitness and prowess are no longer things that are openly (or perhaps even secretly) aspired to by most people. As somebody who makes a lot of effort to watch what I eat and keep myself fit, I’m much more likely to receive light mocking for being out in the rain than encouragement for my efforts. It’s “cool” to be lazy nowadays, simply because the majority of people can’t be arsed to get out there, but still want to self identify positively.
pmr wrote:People are lazy,
Two things:
Firstly not just cycling but walking. Yes, people are lazy espcially with the winter weather but councils dont help either. Poorly maintained roads/pathways mixed with the new fad of inadequate lighting. In my area, some roads are no longer lit, others seem to be on sensor that only switch on when you are directly underneath it and the rest have the new LED light that provide insufficent lighting anyway.
Secondly, i dont think we need to switch to veganism or vegetarianism but what do we need to do is stop seeing meat as the primary part of our food. In short, more veg, pulses, grain and much, much less meat and fish.
Of course, neither both need a massive seed change!
pmr wrote:People are lazy,
Actually I think that’s not actually the problem because all the evidence shows that fat people are seen as being socially acceptable. The problem is that people are now very guarded bout what they say. There is a culture about which has been growing noticeably in the last 15 years that you mustn’t judge people and if you do you mustn’t say so.
No longer are most fat people fat because they are lazy or greedy an woe betide you if you say that they are. This is the real problem.
People really do underestimate the powerful motivating effect of shame (or rather the avoidance thereof) in getting people to take make the right choices.
pmr wrote:” The momentum for
Very true. But, it’s possible to be a fat vegan – a junk food vegan. A plant powered lifestyle is what we really need to strive towards. For anybody out there who doubts this or has been programmed by the protein from meat dogma, please spend 10 minutes Googling Rich Roll to see what is possible on a plant-based lifestyle (5 Ironman triathlons on 5 consecutive days or an Ultraman – a DOUBLE Iron distance triathlon) or Janette and Alan Murry who, despite being in their 60’s, ran 366 consecutive marathons – one every day during 2013 powered exclusively by raw plants. These two examples alone will blow your mind and there are so many more examples.
It’s a frighteningly simple
It’s a frighteningly simple solution to a huge range of problems – pollution, congestion, obesity, the economy…
Build proper infrastructure – not 200m stretches of shared pavement stuff that stops at a junction, not a dash of blue paint down a gutter but proper Dutch/Danish style bike lanes. New York managed to do this in the space of about 3 years thanks to some inspired political leadership.
The result is that more people cycle – this reduces traffic on the roads so that the people who still need to drive (deliveries, emergency services, public transport, essential journeys) can get through more quickly.
This is turn reduces pollution and the time wasted sitting in traffic jams, makes the city a more pleasant place to live and work.
People get more exercise, it’s built into their life, they’re healthier, they cost the NHS less (and there are fewer accidents/collisions due to the good quality segregation so again, less drain on resources and the NHS).
It’s already proven that people spend more at shops when there are fewer cars so the economy benefits, people do more shopping locally so town centres thrive.
It’s blindingly simple and compared to building yet more roads or HS2 it’s incredibly cheap.
Society can be summed up by
Society can be summed up by the guy who passes us a lot. He drives a Range Rover and is so fat that the steering wheel is pressed into his monstrous belly and his head is essentially a pair of eyes, ears and a nose. I have NEVER seen anyone as big as him driving a car – and there are a lot of fat ba$tards on four wheels out there! He makes Jabba The Hut look like a runway model. He drives through the countryside in his tank giving us little space as he overtakes (I’m using the word overtake very lightly here). I despair .
meanwhile on R4 this morning
meanwhile on R4 this morning NICE are advocating surgery to help reduce weight loss. That type 2 Diabetes costs the NHS 10% of the budget (the figure was confirmed after the interviewer queried it) – which is 10% of £97Bn (as far as I can tell) ie £9.7bn a year.
Now I know that politicians like things they can control and set targets for, and you could build cycle paths and no one use them…but surely a slice of the £9.7bn pa (£160 per person) is worth a shot.
It’s not meat that’s the
It’s not meat that’s the problem with the general diet of the population; it’s processed food with high sugar and saturated fat content.
The trouble is whenever a
The trouble is whenever a government department proposes something and backs it up with expected returns on investment figures (5 to 1), it then goes to the Treasury who calculate the revenue extraction its implementation will result in.
So all those 3 mile urban drives at 25mpg means missing alot of fuel tax revenue. Then they turn round and tell the DoT where to put their cycling scheme.
racyrich wrote:The trouble is
Actually too much meat is a bad thing but, agreed. Again though, lack of exercise is the biggest problem. If there was only an easy activity that the general populus could take part in????
Surely there must be something? Oh hang on a minute…… Nah, cant think of anything
Its not meat nor fat that’s
Its not meat nor fat that’s the problem its carbs i.e. grains and sugar. The scandies have woken up to this but the NHS hasn’t. Just go onto any Type 2 diabetes forum and you will soon see what works. T2’s that give up carbs reduce their need for medication and often loose their diabetes too (along with a load of weight if they are obese).
As a (never overweight) active T2 myself I was on the road to ever more diabetes and cholesterol medication even though I had an exemplary diet according to the dieticians. I stopped eating carbs (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, et) replaced them with fats and proteins and voila! I now have fantastic (non-diabetic) bloodsugar readings and super cholesterol figures.
Its the modern industrial diet wot is to blame!
andybwhite wrote:Its not meat
Me too… switched to a low-carb high-fat diet and the excess weight fell off, 5 stone in six months along with 8 inches off my waist… and my HbA1C figures are now in the normal range and my fasting blood glucose is back in the pre-diabetic range…
I don’t think the early
I don’t think the early comments about meat relate to the health impacts of eating it as such, it’s more about the environmental cost of producing meat rather than plant-based foods.
I’m not a veggie, and this link is only the result of a Google, but you can see their point.
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/the-environmental-impact-of-a-meat-based-diet/
Absolutely agree with the
Absolutely agree with the above. The high carb, low fat diet has coincided with the explosion in obesity and diabetes that we see today. It’s hardly a glowing endorsement.
Also, lack of fats in the diet is being increasingly linked to Alzheimer’s.
There’s a lot of good information in the ‘Eat right for your type books’. http://www.dadamo.com/
Explains the differences in blood types and the different foods / lifestyle they each require.
Phil T wrote:Absolutely agree
I agree that the low carb diet is the way to go for many people but I’m not so sure about linking directly to blood type. There seems to be good evidence that, as the website claims, there is a large genetic component to an individuals susceptibility to T2 diabetes but I think it’s more complex than just blood type.
Regarding Alzheimer’s, from what I’ve read, it seems to be linked to excess insulin rather than lack of fats. The buildup of amyloid plaques (which is a key indicator of Alzheimer’s) is thought to be caused by excess insulin using up the enzyme which is normally used to clear the amyloid proteins and stop them forming into plaques.
Early to mid stage T2 diabetes is characterised by elevated insulin levels and some researchers are now calling Alzheimer’s T3 diabetes.
Try searching google for “alzheimer’s insulin resistance”…
FatFreddie wrote:Phil T
The Eat Right for Your blood Type diets don’t stand up to scientific scrutiny:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/blood-type-diet-debunked/
Alzheimer’s is linked to diets HIGH in animal fats ie. low carb diets that substitute healthy plant based carbs for toxic animal proteins and fats:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/alzheimers-disease-grain-brain-or-meathead/
As much as I shudder at the
As much as I shudder at the thought of becoming a vegetarian… don’t even get me started on veganism – I agree that it will answer so many of the worlds problems.
However, so would simply sticking the price for meat up. Tax the backside out of it, make it the luxury food source that it should be.
Interestingly, I was out on my bike on Tuesday night thinking about my safety. And I feel less safe on the roads at night now then I did say 5 years ago.
This is despite local roads not getting busier, local accident rates static, infrastructure improving if anything, as well personally utilising far better lights, and reflective equipment.
In summary, my growing safety fear is not rational.
Thinking about why I feel this way, some of it will be because I am now a father, have responsibilities etc, some of it will simply be because I am older, but really, its mainly because of the abundance of press coverage/material I read there telling me how dangerous it is out there.
Now I have 25 years experience to help me overcome these safety reservations… I can’t see why anyone would start cycling based on the scaremongering that is left unchallenged in our press.
It makes you wonder if the
It makes you wonder if the NHS is such a good thing. I wonder what peoples attitudes to healthy living would be if they HAD to pay for their own healthcare instead of having a state funded service.
The NHS should be a safety net, not something relied upon and the first port of call to resolve self inflicted problems.
Martyn_K wrote:It makes you
That argument doesn’t hold water. People choose to buy their own booze and fags but that doesn’t stop them trying very hard to kill themselves with one or both of these extremely toxic products.
Simon E wrote:Martyn_K
That argument doesn’t hold water. People choose to buy their own booze and fags but that doesn’t stop them trying very hard to kill themselves with one or both of these extremely toxic products.— Martyn_K
I think he’s talking about a more direct and less aggregated connection between what we pay for healthcare and how we regard it. I think there is something in that but not necessarily a straighforward mapping.
Basically if you paid a personal premium to the NHS and not an aggregated one and if it went up 50% for being a smoker and another 30% for being a fatty based on your risk /cost to the NHS then some people might amend their behaviour. Difficult in practice mainly because the ultimate sanction of refusing healthcare to people that abuse the system and refuse to pay premiums isn’t available.
but there is plenty that could be done to make the connection stronger such as an annual account of your costs and contributions.
Martyn_K wrote:It makes you
Indeed, this works great in ‘murica… O Wait.
TheHound wrote:Martyn_K
Indeed, this works great in ‘murica… O Wait.— Martyn_K
Well ‘murica does kind of prove his point. People that essentially pay for their own health care in America do tend to take it rather seriously. It’s a big expensive bill and matters like smoking, obesity, alcohol abuse whack your premiums right up. But if the state or Fed is picking up the tab as it does for poor people then there does seem to be a disregard.
I think there’s a generally held urban myth that if you can’t pay the hospital or doctor in America then you don’t get one and then you die. All that actually happens in practice is that the state pays the bill. In so doing it sends you to doctors you don’t choose in hospitals it specifies and gives you the treatment it deems to be the most cost effective. Instead of your own room, you get put on a ward with others and essentially you get what you’re given and you’re expected to be grateful. A bit like the NHS in fact.
It’s not so very different as it is here. If you go private it’s all nice hospitals and a choice of surgeon at a time that suits you. If you use the NHS you get a good medical service but no nice bells and whistles.
oozaveared wrote:
People
America – one of the fattest nations on the planet with massive problems of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and obesity related cancers…. and private health care … sure they take their own health seriously – NOT!
It the country that invented industrial carb based cheap food and they and the rest of us that follow are paying the price.
andybwhite wrote:oozaveared
not reading what I said eh. There is massive inequality in America. They also have some of the fittest and most health conscious people on the planet as well.
The ones that pay for their own healthcare do tend to be quite health conscious because the premiums directly reflect their lifestyle choices among other things.
The obese in America are almost certainly not paying for their own healthcare because no private healthcare insurer would even quote them. Obesity maps very strongly in the UK and the USA on to income.
So if you are well enough off in the USA that you’re outside state or Fed health programme eligibility then you pay for your own healthcare usually by insurance. So if you’re one of those people then you do take your health seriously because if you are obese you won’t get either insurance or be allowed on state or federal programme. So if you get ill you can be bankrupted.
Most what we might term “middle class” America (Middle class means something different over there ie not super rich or super poor ie the vast mass) but well paid professionals do not tend to be obese.
The obese ones will be the poorer folk that are not paying for healthcare and are covered by either the state or federal programmes.
Martyn_K wrote:It makes you
If you want to know people’s attitudes to healthy living would be if they HAD to pay for their own healthcare, look to the USA.
“The NHS should be a safety net, not something relied upon and the first port of call to resolve self inflicted problems”
Why? Who is going to decide what’s self-inflicted? You’re on a very slippery slope if you take that viewpoint. If you get your arse crushed by a truck while you’re cycling, is that self-inflicted? You chose to ride, knowing that it has risks.
I dont think its carbs or fat
I dont think its carbs or fat or protein or whatever….
I think the problem is the availability of cheap food.
Look at people in the 50s – fit as butchers dogs. Money was tight.
Now we have more disposable income we can basically eat as much as we can. And we do. We dont need that mega pizza – but we can have it.
You can eat very healthily and still get fat. Look at cows. HUGE and they eat salad all day long…
Its willpower and knowledge. You have to know how many calories you’re eating and how many you’re burning. If theres a difference – you’ll get fat. And most of us have sedentary lives. Drive to work. Sit at desk. Eat like we are doing a labourers job. WHY ARE WE FAT ?
Its really not rocket science. And I dont think you can blame councils or pavements. Humans can get up mountains. A few potholes or some darkness shouldnt put us off.
fenix wrote:I dont think its
To answer you fenix:
I agree cheap food is the problem. It’s mostly carbohydrate based and produced using lots of additives which you wouldn’t want to eat if you knew what they did to you.
As for cows – they may be big but they’re not fat – fatty meat doesn’t sell so they’re pumped full growth hormones (in the USA at least) to bulk them up.
Knowledge. Yes it is all about knowledge. It may not be rocket science but it is biochemistry and its way more complicated than calories in vs calories out. its that simplistic approach beloved of political soundbites which is stopping us from getting out of this mess.
People may seem lazy but I
People may seem lazy but I think it’s wired into our DNA to save energy and eat lots when the opportunity arises. We didn’t evolve to be surrounded by a never-ending supply of energy-dense, sweet food.
Rather than meat, it’s the proliferation of starchy carbs and processed junk food that makes a huge difference to calorie intake. Look at the size of the fizzy drinks aisle and the bakery at a supermarket; the shit served at fast food outlets and takeaways; even on cooking programmes and in magazines they are forever showing puddings and cakes as if they are a staple.
The BOGOF, 3-for-2 deals etc are invariably on processed shit you don’t need, not on fresh fruit and veg. The factories and shops want you to buy more and more junk. Most of us find it difficult to resist while many don’t comprehend the harm it does them.
Changing the amount of exercise we do will only addressing part of the problem, but it’s still desperately needed. Also, exercise brings additional benefits, not only to the individual’s physical health.
One reason that I think the Tories don’t care is because they don’t want an NHS; it suits them for it to become more and more expensive so they can trash it, privatise it and let the general population rot. I blame every selfish, tax-averse twat who voted for them.
i blame greggs.
i blame greggs.
bigshape wrote:i blame
They are only a company supplying what is wanted. Ditto McDonalds, Marlboro, cocktail bars etc etc. Why should they be expected to set the agenda? They would change instantly if their customers stopped eating the shit they serve and asked for something healthier.
Lots of seriously overweight professional types in USA. While being defined as obese might seem to be a working class condition there are lots of well-paid fatties too. I also know of plenty of well paid people in the UK who are very overweight, just look at the shape/BMI of our MPs.
I also can’t see how you can effectively tax people for being overweight. I’d prefer to tax products, not consumers. Having said that, it appears that charging a premium for cigarettes hasn’t deterred many smokers. Binge drinking has been increasing for some time now despite the fact that alcohol is not cheap.
Simon E wrote:
I also can’t
I think airline ticket prices should be based on total weight of passenger+luggage. Not a tax I agree, but sending out the message that if you weigh more some things cost more.
Simon E wrote:
Lots of
Both the reported statistics I’ve seen (which might be out of date) and my personal observations, seem to show that that being obese is correlated with being poor/working class/low-SES (whatever you want to call it) for women, but not for men. For men it doesn’t correlate to class or wealth at all, though overall men are slightly fatter than women I think (though there’s very little in it).
I don’t think this is at all surprising, if you think about it.
(Who deals with the food in poorer families, who is more likely to be out-and-about vs being stuck at home? For men, being broke is as likely to require _more_ physical activity than less, more manual labouring jobs, more walking to work, more keeping fit as a source of status, and, er, possibly more running away from the police. Whereas poorer women are probably stuck in the home dealing with child-care, while posh women seem very keen on staying thin in part to emphasise they aren’t poor).
In the US the most overweight group, I think, are black women.
bigshape wrote:i blame
I do aswell, after I cycle into town about 10 miles, I treat myself to a warm sausage roll 🙂
Simple solution, fat fookers get off your arses(I used to be one) and do some physical exercise, eat less. Told you it was simple. 🙂
I’ve not read every post
I’ve not read every post here, one of the causes is out of town shopping places, where I live they are a right pain to get to by anything other than car. I’d close the lot of ’em. I know some people think that going to the shopping centre is a day out for goodness sake. Oh, and then they moan about the queues of traffic to get in and out of the place.
It’s not just that we to cycle more, we also need to walk more.
Rant I know, but how do we get attitudes to change? How do we engage children to realise that MacDonalds etc etc is shit and that we can have a great time walking/cycling/running/swimming? How do get the younger children to educate their parents?
I think some skepticism on
I think some skepticism on the simplistic “exercise more and eat less” meme is probably required. Stephane Guyenet is worth reading on the idea of the “adipostat”.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22238401
Ush wrote:I think some
Poor storage of glucose in early stage (even subclinical) T2 diabetes where insulin resistance and the resultant hyperinsulinemia cause dietary glucose (carbs) to be stored as fat instead of in the muscles as glycogen is one mechanism – it causes weight gain and simultaneously reduces available energy disincentivising exercise.
There also seems to be some tie in with leptin signalling which provides a more direct feedback loop for adipose homeostasis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin).
I’ve done a lot of reading about various aspects of health and nutrition over the last year and I have shifted considerably from my original “calories in calories out” and “it’s just willpower” stance to one where I think we have both a complex and a serious problem and we need to attack it from several angles at once – encouraging cycling is an important part of that but it’s just a part
FatFreddie wrote:
I’ve done a
Agreed. What has become more obvious (in no small part due to the work that Gary Taubes has done) is that this is an extremely complex area and that anyone running around telling other people that they know (preferably in capital letters) what is good for them is at best woefully under-informed. Confidence of ignorance and all that.
Big Pharma will not be happy
Big Pharma will not be happy if we are all healthy
Who will buy their drugs? Profits will go down jobs will be lost. It is not in the “healthcare” industry’s interest to have us healthy.
Mmmmm…..difficult to work
Mmmmm…..difficult to work out why we don’t walk about more. !
This is my daughters route to school, the cock mobile will still be there in the morning and the road will be full of stressed parents shuttling overweight kids to school on the road which she has to walk along because the pavements a car park. The actual problem is there no cure for being a cunt and a lot of them have cars.
Low carb diets do work for
Low carb diets do work for short term weight loss, but at a cost:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/low-carb-diets-and-coronary-blood-flow/
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/atkins-diet-trouble-keeping-it-up/
Except if you do it this way:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-based-atkins-diet/
IanW1968 Why don’t you write
IanW1968 Why don’t you write the driver a nice polite note pointing out the error of their ways preferable with a set of keys across the bonnet 👿
Taxing food doesn’t fix the
Taxing food doesn’t fix the dangerous roads, the overworked under pressure delivery Van driver, doesn’t tame the school run, doesn’t fix the workplaces that are overtly hostile to cycling employees, doesn’t help people on minimal wages, doesn’t help pay the rent, doesn’t fix the long working hours culture that doesn’t allow many workers to make their own lifestyle choices, it’s already decided for them by other factors.
Wow, this has moved on a
Wow, this has moved on a bit…
From a personal perspective, I think there needs to be a step change in societies approach to life.
Less than 100 years ago, for many, the main purpose of day to day life was to try and stay alive.
Now, staying alive is treated as a given, almost as a right.
So the fundamentals of staying alive have been rationalised as much as possible…
Food? Ok, there are simple, immediate solutions to food right here… don’t grow your own, don’t travel around shops to buy your food, don’t prepare your food…
Work? No need for manual labour, there is a computer/robot to do that, you just sit down there and make sure its all OK
Etc. etc. etc.
We have been programmed to be lazy, to focus our attention in other areas… the problem is, we have nothing else to focus on… well nothing achievable anyway.
So our lives, in the quest to become easy and more fulfilling, have become emptier, and accordingly more sedentary.
It is a huge task to turn around the last 70 years of change, but it needs to happen.
If I look at my kids, they are both lean, but they both enjoy a MacDonalds, a KFC, chocolate, sweets etc…. the reason they’re not fat is because there is an awareness that these foods are the exception and not the rule when it comes to nutrition. That is, as said above, hardly rocket science.
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:If I
And I hope they stay that way and healthy.
But as said above, it may not be rocket science but it is complex biochemistry and diabetes is now affecting more and more people who have never been obese, because of the food we eat. Even so called healthy food (ie low fat) is in many cases more of a health risk than their full-fat equivalents. Believe in the simplistic calories in vs calories out message at your peril – its way more complicated than that and the dieticians are only just now waking up to the research that is turning the old certainties on their heads, over the last decade.
andybwhite wrote:Jimmy Ray
Hmmm, I’m not too sure that suggesting the occasional McDonalds etc may generate diabetes in otherwise healthy, lean people is the right are of focus.
For me that is chapter 3 or 4. First up surely, is addressing the extreme ends of the spectrum… you want to change mindsets, saying that everyone can only ever chew on root vegetables is only going to generate resistance to change.
A moderate, varied diet is good enough for the UK I am sure.
The media and supposed social
The media and supposed social stigma don’t help at all.
Clarkson has long peddled his scurvy ridden humour that cyclists are to be pitied as they are forced through desperation to toil away on metal donkeys through all seasons whilst pushing his garbage about being important if you’re sat within your car.
Unfortunately this sort of stereotype increases pressure to join the ranks of the ‘successful’ in life for the weak minded lemmings amongst us and off they pop to get credit on a car.
As usual the media is a mixed, wholly unpredictable poisoned chalice. They could play a huge role in changing attitudes rather than scratching about for sensationalistic gossip about life’s important stories, how huge Kim Kardashians arse is for example.
So the people don’t go
So the people don’t go without health care in the USA? Mmm, I wonder why there is a health care charity which visits facilities such as football stadiums to offer one off health care for people, and there are many thousands in the USA who can not afford health care due to low wages. These people camp out over night and travel over 100 mile to attend these free health care opportunities.
People do die in the USA because they can’t afford health care. Do a little research and you will find that the USA does not have an enviable health care system unless you are wealthy, oh and don’t forget the insurance people have does have limitation with regard to maximum payment for treatment.
I do agree that people should take responsibility for health but do we refuse care to smokers who pay more in taxation as a group than is used by the group in health care, check national audit data if you dispute this. Do we tell people who hill walk it’s there fault If they sprain an ankle walking or perhaps we should withdraw free health care for pregnancy?
What about the obese patient who pays higher rate tax, is he not entitled to health care? It a mine field. One thing I’m sure of we have one of the best health care systems in the world
It’s not brain surgery, but
It’s not brain surgery, but in the case of our policy makers it might help.
I’ve sort of been on a low carb / good fat diet for two years and it really works. I still eat the odd burger (NEVER McDonalds!!!!!). And eat cake at weekends but most days I simply substitute high carb stuff for low carb veg, and red meat for fish and chicken. Simples!
And of course there is a 100 miles or so of cycling to work and back each week.
P.S. I still drink beer, but only real ale; and in moderation. Which reminds me, it’s 9 o’clock on Saturday night…. time to go poison myself with some mucky beer =P~