US-based banana producer and importer Chiquita, the world's largest banana company, is almost certain to be bought by a Brazilian consortium, after the collapse of its attempted tax-dodge reverse takeover of Irish-based banana importer Fyffes. In some ways, this is an entirely normal business story. It features the collapse of the easy, painless [1] tax … Continue reading The death of the banana republic
Category: Eating & drinking
So Dan Nolan was wondering how much beer it would take to kill you. It turns out the answer (LD50) is 42.5 cans in an hour, or 61 cans in a 24-hour day for a normal drinker, or 96.5 cans in a 24-hour day for a heavy drinker who hasn't yet developed serious liver damage. … Continue reading How To Calibrate A Booze Up So You’re Halfway Likely To Die
Governments in both England and Scotland are planning minimum-pricing regimes for alcohol. These are a terrible idea, not only if you're a liberal, but even on their own terms. There are three main issues associated with minimum pricing, all of which are conflated by minimum price proponents (this article is a good example of their … Continue reading Why minimum alcohol pricing is a terrible idea
My dad's friend Martin is an old-school Labour man. I'm his friend on Facebook. It's nice being in touch with such people. Whilst they're not always right, sometimes they are. [Martin R]: The poor are dangerous. Some people: "this is patronising". Me: The poor *are* dangerous. This is clear from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Western … Continue reading Facebook discussions with an old socialist
Alcohol is famous for its ability to cause stupidity. As with most other drugs, this property doesn't solely apply to chronic abusers - it also applies to policymakers and opinion writers, even the sober ones. Drugs and alcohol are second only to immigration as a leading cause of utterly stupid articles. Now, I've written plenty … Continue reading Alcohol-related stupidity
I've always found halal slaughter less unpleasant than regular industrial animal slaughter. As anyone who's ever cut themselves with a properly sharp blade knows, cutting yourself with a sharp blade doesn't hurt at all until about a minute after the event, by which point the animal is already distinctly dead. You might prefer your animals … Continue reading Secularists Go Silly On Halal
So there's an interesting piece on Bloomberg quoting the Sunday Times saying that Fosters Group, the Aussie wine and beer company, might sell its beer operations (branded Carlton & United Breweries, confusingly enough) to SABMiller. This makes sense. Since I was working as a drinks industry reporter getting on for ten years ago, I've been … Continue reading Finding a new Foster home
From Popbitch: In the 2004 European Championships a whole load of Jamie Carragher's family went out to Lisbon to support him. Our favourite over-heard moment from the posh WAG hotel where they stayed, from one of his close relatives: "Call this a 5 star hotel? They don't even have a kettle in the room!" I … Continue reading This is not pikey, this is just *correct*
So there's yet another alcohol-bashing study out. This one says [*] that sports stars' drunk behaviour has no impact on young adults' drinking behaviour (that's 'over 18s', or 'legally responsible adults'), but that alcohol marketing does. This isn't surprising. Of course alcohol marketing makes people drink more of the brand being marketed, otherwise people wouldn't … Continue reading Missing the point on booze marketing, again
In the last couple of weeks, Boris Johnson has done three good things that I can remember: * Allegedly had a row with David Cameron about Crossrail, taking London's side * Endorsed cycling home after a couple of beers * Supported restarting tours of London's disused Tube stations Meanwhile, I can't think of anything bad … Continue reading Must… not… like… pretend… buffoon