The car industry, brands & food retailers conspire to keep us driving, though it's bad for the environment, our waistline & our wallet.
This UK tv series illustrates how most of us buy far more than we need & waste time, money & food... @EatWellForLess bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05…
It inevitably turns out we're seduced by packaging & dishonest, spurious offers & relentless primetime high-cost brand advertising, & 'forced' to take the car so we can carry it all home.
Where our cupboards & fridges are already full to bursting with last week's splurge...
Despite claiming to make 'only one' main shop a week, it turns out most of us make many extra weekly top-up trips. Our already burgeoning diet is further supplemented with convenience snacks, school meals, junk food deliveries & eating out at pubs & restaurants...
The outcome of this avalanche of food is that we buy far more than we can reasonably - or healthily - consume.
As a result anything fresh - eg, fruit & veg, of which there's shockingly little compared with packaged, highly-processed food - frequently rots & is binned...
Another negative outcome of constantly shifting large amounts of food around is the increased burden of traffic on local roads. Even small towns contain clusters of vast retail sheds surrounded by massive parking craters that can take an hour or more to negotiate by car...
This hugely wasteful cycle has been normalised to the extent we even take our bored kids, feeding their acquisitive urges, boosting pester power, ingraining wasteful habits & likely damaging their health through enforced inactivity...
...not to mention poisoning them through in-car air pollution & the crap we feed them, as well as damaging their mental health by constantly moaning about the traffic we're contributing to... theguardian.com/environment/20…
Food giants are slowly waking up to the enormous damage their business practices are wreaking on the environment, but they aren't so hot on the more direct damage they're doing to the people & communities around them.
If you think the UK has a 'free press', think again.
Just 3 companies (News UK, Daily Mail Group & Reach) dominate 83% of the UK newspaper market.
Including online readers, just 5 companies (News UK, Daily Mail Group, Reach, Guardian & Telegraph) dominate nearly 80%...
A pliant government has allowed wealthy individuals & organisations to amass vast political & economic power & distort the media landscape to suit their interests. Six billionaires own &/or have a majority of voting shares in most of our national newspapers...
True editorial independence doesn’t exist in these papers. The owners can – & do – interfere with what is published, which editors & journalists are promoted or fired & also exert undue influence as to which political parties the paper supports..
This exemplifies everything that's wrong with the licensing system. A persistent offender who is demonstrably incapable of operating dangerous machinery in public spaces is allowed to drive again, with the 'exceptional hardship' excuse. standard.co.uk/news/uk/shane-…
#ShaneWarne & other persistent offenders should undergo psychological screening as well as a retest before he's ever allowed behind the wheel. A cycling proficiency test on roads should also be an essential part of the driving test.
Automated speed limiting tech would curb Warne's worst excesses & ensure he can never break speed limits again.
This is what the '#RoadSafety' lobby needs to address, otherwise the lives of innocent victims are worth no more than thoughts & prayers.
I complained to @thesundaytimes about @Real_RodLiddle's article on using piano wire to harm cyclists & got this reponse.
They're claiming it's all a 'joke'
I'm absolutely appalled. 1/5
I'm not aware Liddle was passing himself off as a comedian these days, but if he is he needs to think about his new career direction because advocating violence against others is far from a laughing matter.
Hi article is as funny as cancer...
2/5
The ST's reply is a shocking attempt to defend the indefensible & the illegal.
It's attempting to justify inflammatory 'journalism' that incites criminal behaviour.
Liddle, the Sunday Times and Stephen Bleach should all be ashamed of themselves...
3/5
How broken are borough council @RedditchMatters & local government policies, when most of the stories in the weekly paper @RedStand are about people trying to patch the massive holes in the social fabric...