Mr. Walker, there are definitely degrees, and risks the other way too, but the ridiculous way some people have taken 'body positivity' to include morbid obesity that brings with it serious health risks (not least being more at risk from COVID-19) is not great.
Hilariously(?), a “fat rights” academic in NZ cited discrimination during the recent vax programme as the needles weren’t long enough given the thickness of her arm.
That kind of supports your point, but I don’t believe this is typical.
Worth noting here that NZ has a severe obesity crisis. It has highest rate of obesity in the G20 after the US AIUI.
Yep.
I would guess Pakeha obesity rates to be a bit better than the U.K. average, but Maori & Pacific Island rates are much higher.
We (NZers) drive too much, don’t walk enough, and eat too many carbs / dairy.
One of my main beefs (excuse the pun) with the country is its structural reliance on the car. For all that it promotes itself as a sporty country with a focus on health and well-being, it's often impossible to buy fresh fruit and vegetables in many towns or find even a single decent restaurant – and even if you can find either it usually requires getting in a car to do so. I found the endless driving and lack of good food utterly tiresome when I toured. It lets down what is a beautiful country.
It’s sparsely populated, so public transport is absent outside the three or four biggest cities.
I really don’t get your point on fresh fruit and veg, though - it’s everywhere. And good “restaurants” are hard to find, but decent cafes are not. So it depends what you are into. On balance I would say the food in NZ is better than the U.K., outside London at least.
Edit; one of the gripes of the two Rainbow Warrior bombers (French secret agents) was that the food was so dire.
But that was in 1985, when coffee still came in granules.
Mr. kinabalu, if that caricature is aimed at me then I'd point out earlier today (perhaps in this thread) I did extol the virtues of renewables generally, while maintaining my dislike of wind.
Caricature? I don't think so! But no, not you in particular. I do have you down as a skeptic/denier - since you are and make no bones about it - but you're not ploughing a lone furrow, there are plenty who feel that way. Yes, wind, it needs to be windy, I suppose, so it can only be a part of the solution, think I agree with you there.
In Iraq, the initial capture and occupation of Basra, entered into with soft hats and the self-congratulatory confidence of an Army that believed it led the world in peacekeeping and counterinsurgency, ended in a humiliating negotiated withdrawal of British forces to the edge of the city, where, pinned down by constant bombardment by the Shia militias who now ran the city, they lost all capacity to exert their influence.
The Americans, distinctly unimpressed at the failure of the British officers, were forced to help Iraqi forces retake the city in 2008’s Charge of the Knights operation, a humiliation for Britain. “This damaged the reputation of British forces with the US and the Iraqis and inflicted major dents in British military self-confidence,” Barry notes. Akam is less stoic, describing it as ”an acute and lasting humiliation to the British Army”, which “will linger and follow the troops halfway around the world to Afghanistan”.
Barry observes: “The US government’s decision to invade Iraq must stand as the worst military decision of the 21st century. It was a military strategic folly on a level equal to that of Napoleon’s 1812 attack on Russia and Hitler’s 1941 attack on the Soviet Union.” The failure, then, was ultimately a political one, of British politicians blindly following their American patrons into unwinnable wars.
Perhaps the Army’s capacity to win the next war, like the British state’s to weather the next crisis, would be better served by generals finding the courage, when necessary, to tell politicians that some things simply can’t, or shouldn’t be done.
If it was during a parliament he’d have to persuade a friendly LAB MP to give up his job thus creating a by-election in which Burnham could return to the Commons.
This does not factor in the unpredictability of electorates in by-elections. Voters tend not to like being used to parachute a big-name politician into their seat via an artificial by-election. Look at the failed attempt to get Patrick Gordon-Walker back into Parliament in the 1965 Leyton by-election. I don't think any party has dared try that trick since. Burnham would have to wait until a winnable by-election emerges in the natural course of events, and even then voters might reject him if they perceive him as having been foisted on them.
Comments
I really don’t get your point on fresh fruit and veg, though - it’s everywhere. And good “restaurants” are hard to find, but decent cafes are not. So it depends what you are into. On balance I would say the food in NZ is better than the U.K., outside London at least.
Edit; one of the gripes of the two Rainbow Warrior bombers (French secret agents) was that the food was so dire.
But that was in 1985, when coffee still came in granules.
The Americans, distinctly unimpressed at the failure of the British officers, were forced to help Iraqi forces retake the city in 2008’s Charge of the Knights operation, a humiliation for Britain. “This damaged the reputation of British forces with the US and the Iraqis and inflicted major dents in British military self-confidence,” Barry notes. Akam is less stoic, describing it as ”an acute and lasting humiliation to the British Army”, which “will linger and follow the troops halfway around the world to Afghanistan”.
Barry observes: “The US government’s decision to invade Iraq must stand as the worst military decision of the 21st century. It was a military strategic folly on a level equal to that of Napoleon’s 1812 attack on Russia and Hitler’s 1941 attack on the Soviet Union.” The failure, then, was ultimately a political one, of British politicians blindly following their American patrons into unwinnable wars.
Perhaps the Army’s capacity to win the next war, like the British state’s to weather the next crisis, would be better served by generals finding the courage, when necessary, to tell politicians that some things simply can’t, or shouldn’t be done.
https://unherd.com/2021/11/the-humiliation-of-the-british-army/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=327828405e&mc_eid=836634e34b