“It’s not fair, you can’t make me eat my greens!”
Francis Sedgemore, Monday 7 July 2008 at 11:48 UTC
Is a sensible suggestion nullified when made by Gordon Brown? I refer to the prime minister’s call for Britons to stop wasting four million tonnes of food every year.
This ties in with the publication of a Cabinet Office report report which claims that up to 40% of food harvested in developing countries is lost before it reaches the mouths of over-fed westerners. And of the food that makes it into our heavy-laden supermarket shopping trolleys, £8 worth is thrown away by each household every week.
Reasons for the waste include inappropriate package sizes, bulk discounting and sell-by dates that do not accurately reflect product shelf lives. But there is also a lot of waste in the home, often by people who don’t appreciate the value of food and what goes into producing it. Take for example, the Christmas tradition of buying and boiling to inedible mush huge amounts of Brussel sprouts. This, when virtually everyone detests the little brassicas and leaves them on the plate.
So the prime minister breaks with his usual habit and talks sense. And the reaction from the Great British Public? Going by the BBC’s Have Your Say forum (aka spEak You’re bRanes), it is by and large a single-digit salute to the nanny state. Here we have lumpen “libertarianism” writ large: demands for individual freedom, and to hell with personal responsibility.
The late Sid Vicious, when asked why he didn’t write music for the “man in the street”, replied:
“I’ve met the man in the street, and he’s a cunt.”
Oh yes.
Feed the writer! 
Monday 7 July 2008 at 11:52 UTC
Straight from the Twat-O-Tron:
Monday 7 July 2008 at 14:56 UTC
Who needs the Twat-O-Tron? Here’s a real cunt, courtesy of the BBC:
And another:
The slang name for the “Old Holborn” brand of hand-rolling tobacco is “Old Gob”.
Monday 7 July 2008 at 22:50 UTC
Well ……. I for one LOVE the taste of Brussel sprouts. I’ve even imported them, frozen and fresh, illegally to eat.
I only really like them when they’ve been “bitten” by a good frost. Without frost they are nothing …
this is why we need to fight global worming ….
… the little bastards nibble at the roots of the plant and inhibit their growth.
Monday 7 July 2008 at 22:53 UTC
Your jest sicK sTeevan.
Tuesday 8 July 2008 at 10:18 UTC
Tuesday 8 July 2008 at 11:47 UTC
If you really want to taste what brussel sprouts can be, buy them on a stalk (from e.g. Morrisons, when in season). There are two reasons for this:
a) it looks like something off a triffid
b) the sprouts stay fresher and are much less bitter. Just slice off what you want, microwave it for a bit (shuffle them about half way thru) and it’s the best sprouts ever. A stalk will last two or three meals without refrigeration.
Oh, nearly forgot, Gordon Brown is an idiot.
Tuesday 8 July 2008 at 11:53 UTC
Fair enough, William not from Edinburgh. Sprouts when cooked properly can be very nice.
Monday 14 July 2008 at 11:34 UTC
[Deleted - no platform for fascists, especially those with homo-erotic fantasies]