I fully accept that the Royal College of Physicians has every right to lobby for the view that the pub industry is acting irresponsibly by offering customers larger glasses for wine than they (the RCP) would like. Some 14% of licensed premises say they now offer only 250ml sized wine glasses – equivalent to a third of a bottle. Of course the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers is just as entitled to hit back claiming that it was in the business of offering customers choice. A balanced exchange of views, until that is, BBC correspondent Keith Doyle puts his pennysworth in by suggesting that there was “even anecdotal evidence that some pub staff were under pressure to maximise profits by encouraging customers to opt for larger drinks.” The evils of capitalism, eh? exposed by the BBC. Keith’s “anecdotal” contribution means nothing and it injects a bias we do not require.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
Bookmark the permalink.
Here is the BBC explanation for changing the climate change article!!.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/04/climate_change_debate.html
Sorry for adding it to this article !
I wonder if the BBC think the same of the wine bars that they and their Guardian reading friends visit?
Josso: You should have really posted your comments in the general page. However, in reply the comments from Harrain are utter bollocks.
The BBC do not try to explain WHY world temperatures have NOT risen since 1998. They talk about this year being “cooler” but that still does not explain why we’ve had 10 years on no global warming. I repeat 10 years of NO global warming.
The BBC is full of liars in my view.
Surely if this was about money the bars would be selling smaller glasses for more?
Mailman
I will take heed of the medical profession when,they stop killing people with MRSA C diff,mis-diagnosis,wrong prescribing and general negligence.
Peter,
I can assure you that the majority of the medical profession are as sick and tired of hearing this patronising rubbish as you are.
Gilmore is a rent-a-gob and has form in this area of telling people what to do. It fits in well with his New Labour pals.
As for not heeding the medical profession – that’s your perogative!
Remember that BBC programme ‘Don’t panic I’m Islamic’ which has been raised on this website before. The reporter, Nasreen Suleaman who did not pass on information to the police (on the advice of her BBC bosses). The subsequent conviction of people (terrorists) who took part in the programme. Well I wrote to my MP asking him to look into whether or not Suleaman may have broken the law. I am delighted to say that my MP George Mudie has referred my letter directly to the Home Secretary and asked her to send a response directly to me. I’ll keep you informed.
David your piece is absolutley correct.
Drinking is the new smoking.
The fascist left wingers are now on a new hobby horse assisted by the state controlled BBC to promote the nastiness of alcohol.
Martin:
Josso: You should have really posted your comments in the general page
Martin: I agree but the moderators don’t put up a geneeral page every day which is why my latest contributions are on this thread. If the authors like can find time to post an article sutrely the easiest thing to do is set up a general page at the same time. Please blog minders put up a genral comments section every day. Otherwise it seems people ar going off topic all the time
If the BBC had its way we’d have to buy a drinks licence so that the government could provide us with the correct amount of wholesome drinks before we could buy any others. How delicious would Eastenders Ale or Weakest Link Whisky be?
Many BBC reports stink of the petty authoritarianism that pervades the corporation, perhaps because of the way it is funded.
meggoman: The left want to eliminate drinking for the white working class. However, I don’t think you will find that the left will be calling for the Islington wine bars to be closed down.
People need to wake up that the left will never cease in their “capmaigns”
We’ve had
Nuclear weapons
Road building
Fox hunting
Smoking
Cars
Climate change
What next?
“As for not heeding the medical profession – that’s your perogative!”
In my long association with the medical profession I have learned one thing,Doctors are often winging it.Ones chances are only as good as the paper work.Quite often Doctors simply haven’t read it.
meggoman | 12.04.08 – 4:20 pm,
Good going, meggoman. There must be some way to limit the subversive activities of the BBC.
IMHO doctors should stop lecturing and concentrate on diagnosing and curing unless of course they are lecturing on diagnosing and curing. And the BBC should conentrate on reporting instead of opining
People need to wake up that the left will never cease in their “capmaigns”
We’ve had
Nuclear weapons
Road building
Fox hunting
Smoking
Cars
Climate change
What next?
Martin | 12.04.08 – 5:00 pm | #
Meat.
Don’t forget obesity.
Next thing they object to will be heterosexuals. The BBC will lead the campaign to declare the marriage of a man to a woman illegal.
“The BBC will lead the campaign to declare the marriage of a man to a woman illegal.”
Not if they both do drugs.
Has there been any campaign by the BBC against snorting cocaine? I believe that the BBC staff, those daring cosmopolitans, are rather partial to the white stuff. How about gay sexual practices – are they not a bit risky? Any campaign by the BBC, or is that ‘homophobic’?
Not if they both do drugs.
Peter | 12.04.08 – 9:00 pm
Yeah, that’ll be the loophole.
The BBC do campaign FOR drugs and buggery (ideally together) as many of their staff practice one or the other or both.
I don’t care about what the BBC thinks about anything. I just don’t want to have to pay for all the trash it produces just because I want to watch Premiership Football on Sky TV.
Just what benefit would I get from consuming products like Eastenders, Top Gear and Jonathan ‘w*nker’ Ross?
Surely the phrase “anecdotal evidence” is an oxymoron?
Bryan | 12.04.08 – 8:31 pm |
Next thing they object to will be heterosexuals. The BBC will lead the campaign to declare the marriage of a man to a woman illegal.
Yes, and that will extend to heterosexual reproduction as well. It’s all down to population control. Food prices getting higher, mustn’t grow food crops because we need to grow more biofuel crops (and most farmers are rural hunting Tory or BNP bastards anyway, so they won’t be allowed to make a profit on something so important to society), so we need less people. You can look forward to Britain adopting China’s One Child policy. Homosexuality will occasionally be promoted as the progressive alternative.
Of course, the law will only apply to the indigenous white population and any immigrants from other cultures who find it offensive will be exempt.
This is rather an idiotic piece. Anyone who has worked in a restaurant or bar (or even in a sandwich shop) will know that wine bars aren’t going to maximize profits on three glasses per bottle unless they’re charging a tenner each and/or serving real garbage house wine. Only fancy hotel bars can get away with charging that much. And how do we know that each customer gets a third of a bottle every time? Just because the glasses are so much bigger doesn’t mean the portion increases, um, proportionally. It’s more about keeping the customer happy. Bigger glasses and bigger portions just look better. It’s human nature.
Not only that, but if the portions are increasing in order to make more money, wouldn’t the bars suddenly be charging significantly more as well? Wouldn’t people have been complaining that the prices have gone up as well as the portions? Wouldn’t the primary objection be that the customer is forced to pay more when they don’t want that much? Something doesn’t add up here.
I liked the woman who complains that bars shouldn’t be serving up such large portions because it’s not a good idea to have so much to drink during lunch and then go back to work. Damn those bars forcing people to drink during working hours. I know there is a big difference between the US and the UK when it comes to drinking at lunch during the workday (I’ve had a couple of amusing experiences on both sides of that coin), but anyone who is going to get blasted is going to do so no matter what size portions they are served. Conversely, anyone who is responsible about moderation isn’t going to all of a sudden drink fifty percent more than they are comfortable with. This woman obviously doesn’t know much about moderation, though.
Both people and animals will generally eat or drink whatever is put in front of them, whether it’s too much or not, but expensive wine bars are not slowly increasing the problem drinking of the British Public. And anyways, the BBC already has its primary target in that affair: cheap sixpacks at Tescos. And alco-pops (which should be banned just out of good taste. So should crap lager, come to think of it). And closing the pubs at 11 forcing everyone to binge at last orders. Oh, wait, they fixed that, and now the problem is people drinking even longer into the night because the pubs stay open after 11.
If a new sin tax on wine comes up on the heels of this noise (there is probably going to be a new one on beer in California very soon), they will have given the game away.
Strange how the BBC has a reputation for undertaking activities that it believes is bad for the lower orders.
Remember the glut of champagne bottles in the BBC in 1997?
In my local pub – that still uses these useless 125 glasses but sells no wine – a response to a statement on BBC behaviour on drugs, sex, and buggery was that in the future being homosexual could be made mandatory if the BBC has its way.
Don’t do as I do, do as I say.
The government has largely replaced the plethora of Waiting Time targets (4 hours in A&E, 18 weeks referral to treatment) with “Public Health” targets: “adding years to life and life to years” is the twee civil service strap-line.
The down on smoking, speeding, drinking whatever, is not I think due to totalitarianism (though some have that disease) We already have Eco-Facism, meet its twin, Health Fascism. Its not your life to do as you please, your own choice of poison. You MUST live longer, that is an end which justifies any means. They want to save your life, for gods sake, be grateful, respectful.
Under Labour, you no longer have an NHS to treat the failures of your health, by stealth, the governments job is to MAKE you healthier, through laws, fines, taxes, and information/ propaganda.Its not about the size of the wineglass, its the new targets. “Put that pie down, right now!”
“Under Labour, you no longer have an NHS to treat the failures of your health, by stealth, the governments job is to MAKE you healthier, through laws, fines, taxes, and information/ propaganda.”
Yes but don’t forget,not a minute beyond your working life.Then it is time for the “Do Not Resuscitate” sign on the end of your bed.
David Preiser (USA) | 13.04.08 – 5:06 pm,
Hell, it’s not looking good.
Peter
“Yes but don’t forget,not a minute beyond your working life.Then it is time for the “Do Not Resuscitate” sign on the end of your bed.”
OR
if you have healthy organs – to be carved up as a piece of state property so the great and the good can have access to an unlimited supply of donor organs
“250 ml glasses”…
EU law?
“if you have healthy organs – to be carved up as a piece of state property so the great and the good can have access to an unlimited supply of donor organs
geoffrey sturdy | 13.04.08 – 9:48 pm | #
Which is the reason they don’t want you to have bad habits which might damage the spare parts.
“250 ml glasses”…
EU law?
What’s the imperial unit for a glass of vino. I don’t remember ever ordering a half pint??
Surely any self respecting Brit wouldn’t be seen dead going back to the office having consumed less than half a bottle of wine anyway.
Seriously, stuff like this drives me mad. If you don’t like what’s on offer go to another pub. The only way this could possibly be an issue is if there’s evidence of collusion between pub chains to ramp up profits by denying customers the chance to buy a smaller glass…
By the way, I think there’s an error in the article. David says that 14% of pubs ONLY offer the 250ml glass, but the Beeb article suggests this is offered as the STANDARD size. Therefore it appears that unsuspecting members of the public could avoid chronic drunkeness and an early grave by specifying a small glass when they order.
Cockney | 14.04.08 – 9:19 am |
The bottom half of the article did seem to indicate that there was still a smaller option available in most places, yes. That makes the video segment all the more annoying in that the clear implication is that only the large size is on offer. There’s a contradiction there. And then the BBC complains, as DV points out, that bars are apparently trying to actually make more money by pushing the larger portion on the customers. This is very lame, of course, as this is a standard practice in all retail and restaurants – it’s called “up-selling”.
The BBC better start cracking down on all those waiters at Fredrick’s who push the daily specials, and every employee at McDonald’s who asks, “Do you want fries with that?”, as this forces people to eat more, and contributes to obesity and heart disease.
Don’t worry, Jamie Oliver will sort it all out.
-as this forces people to eat more, and contributes to obesity and heart disease
Yes, David, it does: and over on this side, I am the one who ends up paying for the medical care of tossers who can’t stop smoking, load their arteries with plaque-forming gunk and destroy their hearts by having to lug around 250 pounds of disgusting fat.