Summer Madness: Britain's War on Ice Cream
I did not need more evidence that over-enthusiastic, over-eager government bureaucrats and "progressive" activists are mostly a lot of humorless killjoys who want to regulate and legislate all the fun out of life.
Remember when EU bureaucrats decreed that restaurants in Italy are no longer allowed to hang sausages from the ceilings? Italians have been doing that for centuries, and the visual effect is really charming. But no, EU killjoys said that this was a health hazard, so no more sausages. Who defends culture or pleasure or tradition when regulations are at stake?
Now I read this news story, and I am appalled. In Great Britain, the same type of busy killjoys are waging a war on . . . ice cream. This is too much! Advocates of "health" are out to destroy the happy childhood tradition of getting ice creams from musical ice cream trucks. Oh, the humanity! Soon the day will come when bureaucrats will decree that children can only eat raw organic vegetables.
Here is a piece of the news report. Horrible, horrible!
FOR 60 years the tinny jingle of Greensleeves that announced the arrival of the ice-cream van has been an indelible memory of childhood, but that sound may soon be removed from suburban streets. Health lobbyists have decided that ice-creams are too much of a danger to children’s health. MPs and health officials are planning a series of measures across the country that are already forcing Mr Whippy and his helpers into meltdown. Under an amendment to the Education and Inspection Bill to be put forward this week, local authorities will be given new powers to stop ice-cream vans from operating near school gates. The move comes as operators claim that they are already being forced out of business by an over-zealous health lobby. Local authorities have in recent weeks banned ice-cream vans from using pay-and-display parking spaces and set up “ice-cream-free”exclusion zones around busy shopping streets. Newham council, in east London, informed vendors last month that it would fine van owners up to £80 if they used pay-and-display bays. Greenwich council, in southeast London, has banned the vans from its streets altogether, while in Scotland, West Dunbartonshire council has introduced an exclusion zone around schools for vans. Mark Gossage, the director of Ice Cream Alliance that represented 20,000 van owners in the 1960s and now has 700 members, said that many of his members can no longer make a living. “Many schools have already stopped arrangements for vans to sell to pupils,” he said. “They are wiping us out.” |
Notice: Not only are the humorless "progressives" trying to kill ice cream vans, that beloved icon of childhood summers. Their campaign will also mean economic hardship for the people who make their honest living from selling ice cream. But you can't count on "progressives" to care about that!
At least there are still plenty of ice cream trucks here in my neighborhood! In fact, I'm so happy I don't have any bureaucratic limitations on my ice cream consumption that later today I will indulge in a big huge bowl of chocolate ice cream. It will be very bad for me, and it will be delicious. So there! Tomorrow I will just have to spend more time on the treadmill than usual. Viva Ben and Jerry's!
And one more thing: Has Great Britain really solved all its other problems that it must turn its attention to the supposed terrors of ice cream? Get real. It's like the Brussels EU-rocrats trying to regulate everything from sunshine to seawater when the EU clearly has bigger problems that it is not (or will not or cannot) address.
Hey, bureaucrats! You have all clearly been working too hard and too long in those terrible little offices, poring over your thousands of pages of documents that are in a dozen languages. I suggest you all go outside, see some green trees and green grass in a nice park. Feel some spring sunshine on your face, take off your jacket, loosen your necktie, maybe unbutton your tight collar, and try to RELAX. Oh, and I suggest you buy a nice ice cream immediately, sit on a bench in that park, eat it slowly, and remember that the simple pleasures of life are supposed to be enjoyed.