http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6498255/

Limit to junk food ads
Reid also outlined measures to reduce obesity and alcohol abuse and boost sexual health.

Tobacco and alcohol companies, including pub management firms, fear the proposals will cost them revenue. Food companies and supermarkets have equal reason to be interested.

The government wants to stop any commercials pushing unhealthy foods appearing on television before 9 p.m.

And supermarkets and food manufacturers will be encouraged to adopt voluntarily a clearer labeling system for their goods.

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Apparently, British consumers aren't able to exercise self control and resist advertising. They must be protected from advertising lest they, like children, select the foods they wish to eat and deal with the inevitable consequences.

Let's face facts...the "civilized" west is now becoming a bastion of pansy-assed nancy boys who can't even make good choices about what to put on their plate.

I have two children. I've never been overwhelmed by demands for fish sticks. My mother taught me to cook healthy food, from scratch, and I have done this for my children since they were small. They eat good food because THAT IS WHAT IS SERVED IN THEIR HOUSE. They don't eat junky candy-like cereal because their MOM doesn't buy that crap, regardless of what the children in her house might prefer (Left to their own devices, they'd almost certainly purchase candy corn crunchies or some other sort of crap).

When did adults begin abdicating, wholesale, their responsibility for personal choices to the nanny government?

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

The answer isn't to get advertising off the air, it's to rein in your (*)(*)(*)(*)ed children, people.

I am so (*)(*)(*)(*)ing glad I don't watch television. I'm even more glad that my children won't, either. That doesn't mean I insist the idiots out there can't watch it.

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What have you done for your people today?

children spend in front of the idiot box, and that's the answer, really, isn't it? Adults acting like adults and raising children with good values and the ability to make good decisions?

By the way, thank you for using rein properly. I've seen it used improperly about a dozen times this week, spelled as reign or rain or rein, and I find it annoying...particularly when used inappropriately by alleged "journalists."

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Right on, Catz. That sounds like good parenting. I don’t really understand what the obsession is with t.v. You’re just sitting there staring a screen - that’s not fun. I do rent movies occasionally, or watch Nova or something but I tried watching like “friends” and things like that and I just don’t get it. It’s boring.

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“Been living here in galus for a life too long" - Matisyahu

If kids have a choice between eating their meat and two veg, or a yummy scrumptious burger with crisp golden fries like all the happy kids in the commercials, just exactly how much whining would YOU put up with prior to caving....

This has nothing to do with having a nanny government, and EVERYTHING to do with helping parents give their kids balanced nutritious meals....

Or are you suggesting that advertising aimed at kids is ineffective....remember what happened to Joe Camel....??

Nice rant, but misplaced....

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The last time this country mixed politics with religion, people got burned at the stake.

Unlike the few people such as your good selves, the vast majority of people watch television. Unfortnatley advertising works. People buy what they are told to buy. Dare I say it is the same in the US, only on a grander scale? The response by Labour is due to these disturbing statistics, as published by the health white paper.

24m British adults are overweight or obese (thats over 1/2 of the adult population)
8.5m British adults are clinically obese
17% of CHILDREN between 2-15 years of age are OBESE
There are 30,000 obesity related deaths p.a. in the UK
Britons eat 140lb of suger a year; compared to 4lb p.a. 100yrs ago
People walk 189 miles p.a., compared to 255 in 1975
The NHS bill for obesity is predicted to be £3.6bn by 2010; probably a conservative estimate.

And probably most relevant;

£285m ($526m) IS SPENT ON JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING EVERY YEAR

This, in my opinoin, is the result of the government looking away from the interests of it's sponsors in the interests of it's people; something lacking in the US.

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

Why shouldn't advertisers be free to advertise whatever they want in whatever forum will accept their money, barring obvious moral objections (i.e., no donkey shows)?

Why shouldn't we be free to turn it off if we don't like it?

The answer isn't to censor free enterprise. There's nothing lewd about food...you just don't want to stand up to your kids and say no. Bring the government in for that, they'll stay for something else...

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What have you done for your people today?

There must be a balance between free enterprise and the demise of public health and lifespans, as well as an overwhelming burden on the NHS. The problem is, many parents don't have time to prepare proper meals for their children, so these quick solutions are ideal. Also, I can't remember the exact figures, but something like 4 in 5 parents don't care about whether or not their children exercise; I believe education is essential in improving the health of our nation.

If you are opposed to this, what is your opinoin on the banning of smoking in public places (to be brought in in the next few years) and the banning of tobacco advertising period?

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

"nothing lewd about food..."

There (*)(*)(*)(*)ing well is (sorry, no link, merely experience - trust me, just this once).

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

I believe the government has limits. Deciding what I eat, drink or smoke is one of them. If your own community at the local levels wants to ban foods, drink and smoking, fine; that's your own community. This sort of thing simply cannot be properly legislated at a national level, I believe; we have (and should continue to have) too wide a variety of beliefs and lifestyles.

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What have you done for your people today?