Plain packaging nonsense

I've been having a look at this site http://www.plainpacksprotect.co.uk/default.aspx .
You can take a guess what it is about and you'd be right. It helpfully tells us how plain packs for tobacco products will 'protect children'.
It is, predictably, bollocks. Plains packs will not make jot of difference to tobacco take up. People start to smoke because they see others doing something that seems to be enjoyable and want to sample that same feeling. Some don't like it and never smoke again, some like it and carry on, of those some will quit others won't. The packaging makes no odds. That is why Tobacco companies are so relaxed about the ban.

Strangely, I do not feel an urge to race out and buy a pretty pack of fags!

Children are are not induced to start smoking because of pretty packs and adults won't continue to smoke a brand they don't like because they like a logo.
Already more and more people are starting to use cigarette cases, Pipe smokers and roll your own smokers have used a plain pouch for decades, there's no branding or warnings on them. Yet.
I have three cases*;
A brown one for everyday use.
A black one for formal use.
A silver one for the small cigars that I occasionally smoke.


* I first started using a case because my smokes would get squashed in a trouser pocket or would fall out of my shirt pocket, usually into a puddle, so it was a case of pure pragmatism. That said there is something quite elegant about a cigarette case in certain circumstances.

You know that the good weather is here to stay..........

........when the new intake of beach lifeguards start to learn the different types of the 'Kiss of Life' .

No smoking day 2012

With the annual no smoking wankfest that is 'no smoking day' taking place on Wednesday the 14th of March, I am planning to put up series of images with people smoking in them for the whole month, one each day.

If you have any suggestions as to a theme for this years childish foolery please leave it in the comments.

Shit Bin Britain - again

An Essex fisherman is facing prison because too many fish swam into his nets!

Terry Stimpson, 51, is being taken to court by the Maritime Management Organisation * for catching and selling too many cod. 

It's not like you can tell them to stop going into the net is it? If you do happen to exceed the quota for the boat the fisherman is supposed to throw the excess back. This means chucking dead fish into the sea not returning live ones. So how does this policy help to conserve fish stocks?

Mr Stimpson, who runs the last remaining commercial fishing boat in Brightlingsea, said: “The quota has dropped and dropped for boats my size. Now it is almost impossible for us to make a living. I just cannot see the point of throwing dead fish back into the sea. It is a completely senseless waste of our natural resources." 

I guess that they want you to give up Terry, there's no room for the little guy in the scheme of things even though common sense tells us that small boats fishing inshore waters are the most reactive and sensible way to manage fish stocks. It was never about conserving fish it has always been about control.
But who or what could be behind this bizarre approach to fisheries management?

European Union rules set a strict limit on the amount of fish which are caught.

All becomes clear 

The Maritime Management Organisations' website has a merry questionaire that you can complete asking us to 'share our views' - have fun!

That's one cool bike..........

We've got a load speed humps round here and I'd like to see her ride over a few of them.
Just to see how the bike handled them of course.

WOW!!

So that is 500 posts and and nearly 127000 page views.

Which can't be bad for a self indulgent blog added to on an 'ad- hoc' basis.
Maybe as things change here at Muddy Towers the blog will become more incisive, politically aware up to minute vital reading - but I doubt it.

Mud in the Blood subscribers hold an impromptu celebration of the 500th post today.

Thanks to everyone who has dropped in to read the ill conceived rants, mindless drivel and incoherant rubbish that is contained here.

A very special thanks to the two readers who visited twice. Here's to the next 500!

Sitting Down

For the last week I've spent most of my time outside. Catching up on a few jobs, just general things nothing particularly strenuous or anything. Now, the thing is that whilst I have enjoyed the feeling that physical tiredness brings, I have also realised just how unfit I have become. It's not about strength or weight but stamina. I just can't do the things that I used to. But I am not talking about real hard work, just normal household stuff.

The reason has got to be the way that life has unfolded over the last few years. irrespective of what I was doing I was sitting down. I sat down in the car, on the train, in meetings, in front of the computer, to eat or watch TV, I sat down at the cinema, I even sat down when fishing.

My day started with coffee and cigarettes and never moved much beyond that until a huge evening meal.

I turned into a slob and I never noticed!

Gun hate - WIN

Re-enactment enthusiast swooped on by armed police

Mr Smith pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm in a public place but after being given a 12-month conditional discharge, the police returned all of his guns to him.

This story restores a little faith in British justice - or in the judges anyway;

Common sense prevailed when the judge dealing with his case at Sheffield Crown Court recognised he was a genuine enthusiast and intervened to save Smith from punishment and his weapons from destruction.

A pity the police couldn't have simply checked that the gun was not able to be fired and advised him to keep it in the boot of the car though. Thereby saving everyone a lot of time and money! 
I suppose that would have required exercising a little 'police intelligenge'.

Syria

After the rioting last summer imagine that a politically or religiously motivated group had managed to obtain some basic weaponry, declared itself as the 'Free British Army' and occupied areas of our cities.
What would our government have done?
Well, they would probably have mounted a robust police operation to end the occupation and bring the perpetrators to justice. If the police could not do it then it would seem logical to involve the army in joint operation.
Any such occupation or uprising would be termed as a series of criminal acts and I guess that public opinion would be on the government side except in the occupied areas, where it may be safer and more expedient to support the 'Free British Army' (FBA).
I also think that the government would not be particularly receptive to calls to talk with the FBA from other countries thousands of miles away with a very different cultural perspective. They would be outraged at offers to support, train or arm  the FBA from these countries.

Yet we, and others, are doing exactly this to Syria. To greater or lesser extent we did this to countries involved in the Arab Spring uprisings, notably in Libya where western powers actually won the war for the revolutionaries. Yet in no instance have the old regimes been replaced by real democratic systems and in most cases the countries are sliding toward of position of Islamic enmity rather than secular democracy. I cannot understand why the west would want to topple Syria into Islamic extremism, which is what will happen.

Syria is certainly not a country with a record of good relations with the West and has a poor record in respect of human rights and political freedoms. It is however a secular society with a significant christian minority (9%).
If Syria was to fall, bearing in mind the attitude to non-muslims now predominating in counties that were involved in the Arab spring, what would happen to them?

Jesus H Christ!

Is this all they have to worry about? She is smoking whilst pregnant!

Read the shocking story in your soar away shit factory;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2095515/One-Born-Every-Minute-causes-outrage-17-year-old-labour-reveals-smoking-pregnant.html

Really, isn't their anything else more news worthy?

Actually there's loads and I could sit here for hours listing things that we should all be truly outraged at, but life is too short. That is why the MSM can get away with publishing this shit and nobody cares.So much is broken across our whole society that any attempt to fix anything would either fail or never even get started. Why? Because it is all so rotten that the only way to mend it is start again. If that were ever to happen then the problem of teenage pregnant smokers wouldn't even register.

A good place to start may be to leave people the fuck alone and stop encouraging the dribbling masses to shit themselves over non problems that are awkwardly linked to matters of personal choice; that the brain dead disapprove of, creating this sort of foaming outrage that would make a Salem witch trial seem calm and sensible.
Fuck it. I give up.

Back to the future

These two posts have struck a chord with me.
Leg Iron writes of the way that the tax system discriminates against the self employed, while Longrider muses on employment in general and going back to doing things that you enjoy and are good at. I too, have just paid my tax bill and am continuing to see little sign of any upturn in the fortunes of my customer base.

So,I have spent the last three weeks or so gardening.
Some gardening for myself and some for others, friends and family mainly, so it has not been a money-making exercise as such. It has brought me in a full circle, for the first eight years of my working life I was a gardener, not a grass cutter but a proper one and for the first few years I was trained by men who had learnt their trade in much the same way as Victorian gardeners would have done, albeit with more modern machinery.

As the pressures of family grew I moved from using garden machinery to selling it, then onto sales management and international sales. After that I wrote about the industry for a few years and then moved into promotions and PR. This latter career move was driven by new product releases and these have been gradually diminishing as the recession progresses. That won't change for a while yet.

I don't need a full time job, but I do need to make some money. Going back to where I started seems like a good idea, the demand for gardeners is certainly there as the ageing population grows. These people need help with their gardens not landscaping or block-paving which suits me. So later in the spring, unless other work comes along, I'm going to start to offer my services as a gardener.

Whilst I have enjoyed all of the jobs that I have done, I think that working as a gardener was the most enjoyable, most educating and worst paid. Now that money is not such an issue I am looking forward to going back to my roots. Even a moderate income will be all I need and I could sure do with the exercise.