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LARGE FIZZY DRINKS may become a thing of the past in New York City if the mayor gets his way.
Michael Bloomberg, the city’s mayor, has unveiled a plan to ban the sale of large sugary drinks at restaurants, cinemas and from street stalls in NYC as part of an ongoing battle to combat rising obesity levels.
The proposed ban would see an end to drinks which are bigger than 16 fluid ounces (the equivalent of 473 millilitres). The average can has 330ml while a pint has 568 ml, meaning that only sugary drinks roughly one third larger than a can would be allowed to be sold.
The mayor told the New York Times that obesity is a major problem across the US and that “wringing your hands” is not a solution. More than half of all adults in New York City are either obese or overweight.
The ban won’t apply to diet fizzy drinks, milkshakes, alcoholic drinks or low-calorie drinks, or to drinks sold in newsagents or supermarkets.
If approved, the ban would be the first of its kind in the US, which is currently battling a rapidly increasing problem with obesity. The proposal will have to be approved by the members of NYC Board of Health who, as the New York Times notes, were all appointed by the mayor.
Michael Bloomberg, who is serving his third term as mayor of NYC, has already brought in a range of public health rules, including banning smoking in restaurants and parks, making fast food restaurants display calorie counts on their menus, and banning certain kinds of fats from restaurants.
What do you think? Would you like to see giant fizzy drinks banned in restaurants and cinemas in Ireland?
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It’s bad luck to be superstitious.
They have lot of money and time to spend doing nothing better as usual,thats politicians for u…letting every1 believe they are right.
But Such shite though. If its unlucky its unlucky because it’s the 13th year, not because the plate says 13!!
Healy Rae is some 13ollix….
This is a joke, I was looking forward to a 13 reg car
This is a joke. Was looking forward to a 13 reg car.
One good idea don’t stop him from being a prat.
You think this is a good idea?!!
The cost of implementing a new reg system is likely to outweigh the benefit (if any) associated with this foolish plan!
I had a great laugh when he said they were too many signposts in Kerry. They already know where they are going!! That said, he had a fair point about the car regs. He wasnt afraid to be laughed at and now it looks like it will finally be addressed
@ Creamy Hamstrings: What cost? One extra digit printed onto a motor registration plate? A slight upgrade to motortax.ie? Probably one to the Garda database as well. That’s about it as far as I can see. We’re hardly talking millions or billions here.
Plus it’ll be for all years going forward as far as I can tell from the original Independent story yesterday.
Its a good idea not because of the 13 thing, its splitting the year is the good idea. It would stop front loading car sales to January,just because the Uk have it in place doesnt make it a bad idea. And he is still a pratt.
Good idea?
I never understood why we incentivise buying new cars, all of which are manufactured overseas with only a small sales margin staying in Ireland.
Seems to me that we should encourage people to spend their disposable income on something that benefits the economy (eg doing up the house, weekend down the country etc)
Ryan, I guarantee you – wait and see how “difficult” it will be to change over. So we of course will need:
- a 13 working group
- a 13 steering group
- a new computerised system
- a training week in Frankfurt to show the muppets how to use the system
- a new reg plate printing system
- an as always, since it’s Ireland, the cost of resolving all of the above once somebody cocks it all up.
@ Creamy: By that logic we should never change or reform anything.
Ryan – What?! of course we should change, evolve and adapt ourselves to use the latest technology, always. However, to do so on the basis of a superstition is ludicrous!! This bunch of overpaid and underqualified teachers are not the men to lead us into such reform because it will no doubt attract such unnecessary additional costs as I’ve mentioned above.
Ryan: You’ve obviously never worked for a large corporate firm. There are no such things as small changes, the registration number is used by multiples of systems both inside and outside the government, amending all these systems and then performing quality assurance on them all is not small task.
Plus it’s a stupid idea.
it’s not a good idea. it’s ludicrous. There’s no such thing as bad luck!
Next up, a cull on black cats becuase there’s nothing else to be at!! And stop giving that flat cap from kerry attention, ffs..
Black cats are GOOD luck. Did you do badly at school?
That’s the whole useless point!
Oh, everyone’s ruining my morning, I’m going back to bed…
Conor…what school did you go to as clearly you didn’t learn the entire story around black cats.
Depending on the culture black cats are bad AND good luck,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_cat#Superstition.2C_prejudice.2C_bringer_of_good_or_bad_luck
While they are apparently seen as good luck in the UK and Ireland at the same time they are also seen as bad luck, “in Western history, black cats have often been looked upon as a symbol of evil omens, specifically being suspected of being the familiars of witches, and so most of western and southern Europe considers the black cat as a symbol of bad luck, especially if one crosses paths with a person, which is believed to be an omen of misfortune and death. In Germany, some believe that black cats crossing a person’s path from right to left, is a bad omen. But from left to right, the cat is granting favorable times.[5]“
It should be decided by a telephone vote ….wait a minute.
The M50 is built over a fairy fort and should be closed immediately.
I didn’t know that, I am never using the m50 again..
Another chance to have a shot at the stupid “Micks” there Patrick, what what?? Well done.
Its called sarcasm Alive.
Clive
Of course it was sarcasm Les – I would say that Clive will get it any day now.
now is the time to scrap this ridiculous system of parading the age of your car around for all to see how you change your wheels every few years.
superstition? nope. just a way for car dealerships to persuade people next July that their six month old car is already a relic.
Here here
Where where?
You’re on the ball Dexter ;-)
What an absolute load of utter b******s. Will we ever learn?????????? Is this what Ireland has come to ; bowing to superstition…….or worse again, encouraging number plate chasing to the extreme.
The government is bowing to another lobby group. Just like previous ones did with the auctioneers.
And yet if they didn’t bow to lobby groups, people would read a press release from the motoring groups about jobs being lost – and attack the government for doing nothing. Darned if they do, and darned just as much if they don’t. In fact a post yesterday got quite a lot of green thumbs for suggesting the reintroduction of the scrappage scheme.
Scrappage scheme was a ludicrous waste of money. Encouraging sales of Korean, German , Japanese cars??!!!
Silly idea. If you don’t want 13 on your car, don’t buy one. I would happily have 13 xx 666 on mine, if the car was for the right price.
‘if you don’t want 13 on your car, don’t buy one’. Good point, except that it would be justifying Healy-Rae’s crazy logic.
I can’t afford a new car but if I could 13 on the number plate wouldn’t worry me. By the way which County is XX?
Are we trying to portray ourselves as a rational, modern country or…?
He’s a village idiot, a childish prat looking for a pat on the head. He wasn’t the first to suggest a change in the registration system, he was just the loudest honking goose.
New car?nI would be embarrassed to be seen driving a new car in this bankrupt banana republic.
I’d drive a car with TOSSER on the plate if the price was right.
I’ll keep driving my 00 silver bullet until it falls apart.
“TOSSER on the plate” ? Are you trying to incite some budding entrepreneur to sell you a car with Healy-Rae nailed to the reg plate Rónán ?
The Da on the back, the son on the front maybe ?? Might be a bit of a handicap getting into those tight parking spaces… Let me look into it…..
Someone is really trying their best to make being Irish as embarrassing as possible.
I agree completely soo embarrassing !!
People of Kerry, you are missing an idiot. You voted for him, keep him there please.
And what are we blaming the country’s bad luck so far on?
Corruption
Cats
Is this really what TDs are paid to do? I’m superstitious about the letter D, I live in Dublin and I have a phobia about having Irish on my number plate… how can you help me Michael Silly-Hat?
I give up! What an absolute joke!!
On the positive side, I’m delighted to now know the word ‘triskadekaphobia’
Here’s the conclusive proof we are governed by absolute idiots…
So let me get this straight in my head.
The plates will be issued in two lots during the year, which is a 52 week period (52 is divisible by 13). The first period will be 26 weeks (also divisible by 13).
Now I get it????
Also, may I point out that most people currently display insurance “discs” and tax discs with a 13 on them. I don’t remember any furore about that?
Good Point.
Wait until the British tabloids get hold of this one…..
Healy Rae has probably tipped them off already. Repeatedly. By phone. Gombeen of the highest order.
Will this mean our beloved government will now act on the cracks in the pavement, black cats crossing and ladders where God forbid people might walk under them….
He won’t be vindicated unless we do see a sharp spike in car sales, attributable to the lack of “13″.
Until then, he’s just an idiot with pull.
‘Twould want to be some spike to change my default setting for Healy Rae. Langer. ;)
My house is at number 13. I want a new house
With the new VRT changes coming in cars are going to be to expensive anyway .
They are expensive now.
People are idiots. I really fear for humanity when rubbish like this gets taken seriously…
This is the kind of stuff you normally read on April 1st. Seriously, what percentage of people are actually bothered by the number 13? Multiply that by the number who can actually afford a brand new cant next year and you’ll see that the ‘loss’ to the car industry would be marginal. Certainly less than the cost of implementing this crazy idea.
Not to mention that even if the plate doesn’t say ’13′, it does not change the fact that the car will still have been registered in 2013, therefore if it really is unlucky, changing the plates would solve nothing! Is there any hope for us as a species?!
No doubt all the computer systems for car tax, registration, NCT etc just have 2 character items for the car year, so 13 instead of 2013 etc. It would probably cost the government a fortune in consultancy fees, project managers and developers etc to make this change to their IT systems to 3 or 4 characters for the year field and doing it in 4 months is unrealistic. Some simple projects like this can take years!
he must have held a meeting with them leprechauns around kerry going home the pub late one night
So we’ll be raising VRT and road tax, but offsetting it by avoiding the ’13′ license plate?
If you haven’t lost faith in politics yet, now’s the time to do it. :-/
I wouldn’t mind if it was just a case that the car industry takes a massive hit mid-year or whenever and this will be a good way of spreading out sales across the year, but it is a massive shame that this “13″ nonsense is getting a big chunk of the attention…
If ever we needed further proof that we have far too many TDs, then here we have it. Any chance we could make Kerry its own sovereign state and let them at it, the could instate the Healy-Rae clan as their royal family…
*they
Isn’t wearing your cap indoors unlucky? Or is that just plain ignorant? Tool!
And lose the stupid hat.
Or cap i should say
I superstitious about Kerry politicians in hats – any chance we can avoid listening to them for the next year at least
Maybe we need a task force to protect us from the boogeyman.
is it April? this can’t be true…. have they nothing to do?
Well done Healy -rae and best of luck in your new idea prohibiting magpies flying about on their own.
Other idiots liking your idea doesn’t make you smart.
Are we a nation of idiots? To use the number 13 on a car would offend the Gods and bring bad weather and poverty to the country. A sacrifice to the Goddess for 12 days is now required.
We’re from a nation of idiots – sure don’t we have the blasphemy law to appease the gods?
I pity Michael Healy-Rae and his voters.
Healy Rae is ah ah ah uno uno uno di di di di donkey.
He once said that if he won 13million on the lotto he’d hand back one of them!
Stupid stupid stupid
Splitting the year in two is a good idea the U K did it some time ago and it’s worked well .The superstition thing is a joke but this is the TD that recently was concentrating his time and effort on putting toilets in graveyards,halve the number of TD’s then they won’t have time for such trivia.
Now no one can contradict the fact that this country is a joke. its actually been run by simpletons
I would contradict the “it’s actually been run” bit though….
Rubbish!!
Why would you buy a new car the tax brackets between the old cars and new cars are closing,
the VRT is increasing and once you drive it out of the garage its worth a lot less than you pay for it.
No I think I’ll keep my 01 thanks very much the price of the odd repair is cheaper and to be honest it doesn’t need a main dealer to look after it so
Happy days
who gives a s++t what the muck savage thinks. He’s corrupt like the rest of them and his dopey father.
What about the 13 on the last part of the plate, eg. 131-D-13, will they be getting rid of this too?
What a jackass. Waste of space. Waste of taxpayers money.
This has to be a joke?? How can Ireland be taken seriously if we actually do this!! We’d b the laughing stock.. :-/
We are and have been the laughing stock for some time now Lisa.
Just read in the Indo that the cost of cars is going up next year thanks to our government doing what the Troika is telling them to do so no amount of changing the reg plates is gonna boost car sales in the future.
Could be a problem here 131D is a prefix for a diplomatic registration in the uk
This isn’t the UK.
Are we a modern European country yet?
Secretly I’m hoping that this fool has shares in some license plate manufacturing facility and the extra digit will boost his profits.
Oh FFS Sean!
I’d say you’re a right laugh in company.
Anyone who is put off buying a car with a 13 reg should be charged an idiot tax of €2,000 and automatically put on a new PAYE rate of 90%. Dopes.
what about people who think 13 is lucky! what will i do now!
What kind of adult believes a number is unlucky.
Just stick A 20 in front of the 13, no need for anything to change in paperwork but if the person wants the 20 they can have it on the number plate, daft idea to change the reg system we have the best one in the world
That Guys a national embarrasement
I have to say ” What a load of crap!”..in this day and age people can be so superstitious!!!!!..there are more things to be concerned about instead of having a number plate (or not)with 13 on it!.
He’s a national disgrace..what a moran
No, he’s a healy.
Hugh,
It’s Triskaidekaphobia.
What a total and utter caipin wearin tool
Boost car sales??? What are they putting up the VRT on new cars in the next budget then?
Isn’t it obvious?
Nobody will buy a car with 13 on the plate so the VRT rise will balance the loss on reduced car sales, we all laugh at this forelock tugging bumpkin but in reality his idea is fantastic….remove the 13 and everyone will buy a new car and the VRT may be scrapped.
We should applaud this moronic genius for his insight.
Wasn’t a 131 a FIAT? I’m sorry, I won’t have that never on my car because the evil rust demon will claim it as its own!
Yep. A 131 Mirafiori I think! Great for hand break turns.
Well, nowv I know why politicians Lie and Laugh at us!
exactly. Supposed to be a Christian Country and yet its superstition dictates what people buy. Dumb ignorant sheep.
Replace the number with a picture of Brian O Driscoll and scare everyone else instead of being afraid to drive your own car
Cods wallop.
When lobby groups lobby, the nation should avoid all relavent products. When idiots are elected, the electorate should avoid the next relavent election to include all politicians, just in case there might be more idiots waiting to damage our livelyhoods in favour of their own friends.
“I was ridiculed!” You see, Healy-Rae was playing the Sarah Palin card. What’s that, you ask? It’s when a politician says/does something that isn’t quite… conventional, then tries to act out a role of someone being harassed.
It’s like a white middle class American kid being mocked by minorities in the schoolyard because he was being close minded and racist.
pathetic excuse for a human being.
Sorry i mean to put why are thay putting up VRT on new cars then. :)
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