Drinking raises risk of cancer

Little Ole Beer Drinker Me

Yet another study comes out telling us that something we do as humans is going to kill us. This time it's the demon drink back on the chopping block. Yes, we all know that some drink too much. Winston Churchill drank like a tank. Yet he lived a reasonably long life. These po-faced researchers say drinking more than a pint of beer a day can substantially increase the risk of some cancers. They want "tougher regulations" over alcohol consumption. But all their talk is based on shoulds and coulds. They don't say with any certainty it CAUSES cancer. Just that there is an increased risk.

So if we all know that, then that's fine. It's the holier-than-thou attitude that gets me. What do these people really want? Ban all alcohol. Are they some kind of Taliban in medical clothing? Madlen Schutze, lead researcher and study author, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, said that many cancer cases could be avoided if alcohol consumption was limited. "And even more cancer cases would be prevented if people reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all," she said. Has she studied the deaths of drunks? I would have thought cirrhosis of the liver a better bet.

Instead of lecturing and maybe hectoring us, perhaps we could lead lives devoid of such interference.

Bailing out the British way of life?

It seems Alistair Darling is keen to bail out bankers and corporate failures at the expense of hard working business people and the struggling entrepreneur. Even today he blinks like an owl at the thought he was in any way part of the sleazy money washing culture.

So whilst the banks get to board the gravy train leaving Number 11 Downing Street (or should that be the gravy bus?), others can go hang. These include sub-postmasters/mistresses (not PC I know!), village pubs, village schools, rural bus services....the list goes on.

In twenty years time our villages will just be commuting communes with no sense of neighbourhood. The BBC has a depressing report on the dwindling number of village pubs. Soon England will be a place where nobody talks to anybody other than to get something out of them. Paul Shenton, who used to run the Lord Nelson in Holton, Suffolk, puts it down to a cultural and economic shift. He says that villagers are now happy to stay at home watching DVDs and enjoying cheap drink from the supermarket. How sad!

Lord Nelson would have been proud to see so many pubs named after him. But did he fight the Battle of Trafalgar so that we could become a nation of grasping bonus chasers and cheap booze lounge lizards?

Surely not?