Breaking News: Smiths is safe for the BabyCams

David Cameron famously complained about the way that customers with young children were encouraged to buy chocolate oranges at branches of WH Smith.   There is good news to report from the high street this morning.  At the Salisbury branch of Smiths there were no chocolate oranges in sight.  In their place were very child-friendly DVD copies of Wind in the Willows.  Unfortunately the free DVD was only available to customers who bought a copy of the Daily Mail.  I can't imagine many modernisers liking that.

Comments

[Jonathan Sheppard]

Surely a price worth paying Tim.

[Chris Palmer]

The Daily Mail is much better for you than a Chocolate Orange. If it had been the Mirror, or Guardian however...

[johnC]

with apologies to William Norton...

Wind in the Willows

Timeless family classic

A trio of lovable riverside chums (Cammy, Ozzie and Maudie) decide to take over a ramshackle blue travelling home and see the world.

But when Cammy is driven off the road by a sleek new red sportscar driven by local landowner Blairy he realises that his caravan isn't 'built to last'.

'Poop Poop !' he says, dreaming of a brand new middle-of-the-road car with lots of flash soundbites just like Blairy's.

You will rock with laughter at Cammy's hilarious escapades as he throws caution (and all his policies) to the winds.

Follow his comic capers through the poll crash, the trial by bloggers and the imprisonment by the forces of political correctness.

Can he be rescued by his sensible friends Foxy and Davy ? Can he disguise himself as a Thatcherwoman and escape ? Will he ever reach No 10 Toad Hall and evict the squatting blairies and brownies ?

Verdict: If you don't laugh you'll cry.

[James Maskell]

I find it sad that Cameron felt the need to single out Terry's Chocolate Oranges like that. Isnt he supposed to believe in the freedom to choose? People want to see some real policies not scapegoating. Chocolate Oranges arent the primary reason for the obesity problem, nor are they a particularly big reason for it. Why not pick on McDonalds, KFC and Burger King instead? They are much more of a reason for it.

[Rob G]

James M: DC singled out chocolate oranges becuase WHS had them on special offer - half price - at the check out. I have reservations about whether the point was worth making - but he wasn't attacking the oranges but the practice of putting sweets on special offer at checkouts.

[Burkean]

Ah, The Wind in the Willows, a tale that features Ratty arming himself with two stout pistols from his collection when he goes into the Wild Wood to enable him to defend himself against the Weasels.

I wonder if Mr Cameron approves of that?

[mac]

Not sure how this stacks up with Cameronian environmental policies.

The Wind in the Willows is sub-liminal propaganda for vehicle ownership - the motor car being referred to as 'the only true poetry of motion' - no criticism of Andrew M intended presumably, as he was years in the future.

Maybe Cameron could campaign for a new updated version of W in the W with Mr Toad driving a hybrid.

[Laughing Cavalier]

It's simple. Buy the Daily Mail. Pocket the DVD, bin the paper.

[Laughing Cavalier]

It's simple. Buy the Daily Mail. Pocket the DVD, bin the paper.

[wasp]

I don't think chocolate oranges or Burger King are causing the obesity problem.

A school system with food of questionable nuitrious value and no sport is one cause.

Another is that super markets sell cheap ready meals and frozen junk food like chips, burgers and ice cream. Whereas fresh healthy food is expensive and time consuming to prepare when less parents have the time or energy to cook.

In addition digital TV, computer games and the internet have led to more sedentary lifestyles.

Forget chocolate oranges it should be a campaign against Andy Robinson and Sven to make English sport more competitive.

[Richard]

Why this dislike of the Daily Mail? Ok so it's a tabloid and so will obviously lack the intellectual weight of the broadsheets but at least it's a Tory paper that, together with the Sun, Blair and co have a fear of.

[Annabel Herriott]

One reason for childhood obesity is that it is virtually impossible to buy breakfast cereal that is not loaded with sugar in one of its forms. The internationals have got the world hooked on sugar. Very very clever. Sugar gives an insulin bounce, you feel hungry again pretty soon, and reach for your next sugar hit. Its worse actually, many BABY food manufacturers pull the same trick. If every parent checked the ingredients listed, they would not get any more. I used to have big arguments with the Farleys rep about his baby cereals, even the allegedly low sugar ones. And as for Ribena!! words fail me. Check out the rotten front teeth of kiddies with a juice in a bottle habit. Oh I should shut up, I am supposed to be retired. I wonder though, if we, as a party COULD do something about it when we get back to No 10.

[Tom Ainsworth]

I like Ribena, and my teeth are fine! I do not want any government 'doing something about it'. It is none of their business.

[Jon White]

And, as an employee of a company who makes Cough Sweets, many of which have a high sugar content, I wuld point out that the Sugar Industry is generally British, profitable, and provided British jobs.

[Chris Palmer]

"Why this dislike of the Daily Mail?" - Richard

Because it's right-wing and speaks a lot of sense.

[Editor]

In case anyway is confused... I'm not anti-Daily Mail but many ultra modernisers call it the Hate Mail.

[Richard]

"The internationals have got the world hooked on sugar. Very very clever. Sugar gives an insulin bounce, you feel hungry again pretty soon, and reach for your next sugar hit. Its worse actually, many BABY food manufacturers pull the same trick. If every parent checked the ingredients listed, they would not get any more."

That says more about the parents than it does about the multinationals. In a free market, the consumer is king. If consumers stopped buying sugary foods producers wouldn't make them.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

I think WH Smith and other newsagents should be applauded for trying to educate our children.

I hear they're currently running a promotion whereby anybody who purchases a heavily-discounted Wind in the Willows DVD (only 55p!) is offered a free copy of the Daily Mail.

[Annabel Herriott]

On that same argument, if no one bought ciggies, they would stop making them? Dont be daft, sugar is addictive too.There is plenty of energy put into getting folk to stop smoking. Taking it to its logical conclusion, sugar does a lot of damage too. Obesity, Type two diabetes >>>renal failure, amputations>>>renal failure.. Read it all up sometime, then go back to the free market argument.

[Richard]

"On that same argument, if no one bought ciggies, they would stop making them? Dont be daft, sugar is addictive too.There is plenty of energy put into getting folk to stop smoking. Taking it to its logical conclusion, sugar does a lot of damage too. Obesity, Type two diabetes >>>renal failure, amputations>>>renal failure.. Read it all up sometime, then go back to the free market argument."

If people choose to start smoking then they must face the consequences i.e addiction. The same applies to sugar. Furthermore, there are many people who choose to give up smoking. I know several people who have done so successfully. Yes, it's not easy, but nor is it impossible.

The free market gives people what they want, including things that are bad for them. It is not the duty of the government to stop that but for people not to buy things that are bad for them. I have never smoked, nor do I intend to. I like sugary foods but I don't eat that many. Those are my choices and I must face the consequences.

[Annabel Herriott]

But that just makes more work for folks in my previous incarnation. Clinics for mopping up the consequences!!!

[Richard]

"But that just makes more work for folks in my previous incarnation. Clinics for mopping up the consequences!!!"

That's not a problem providing the clinics are privately funded. The problem is that many are not. As a result we end up paying for the consequences of their decisions.

[Annabel Herriott]

Richard! Did I just hear your argument coming full circle? Or dont you like an old health visitor having the last word!

[Mark Fulford]

The free market gives people what they want, including things that are bad for them.

Richard, I know it's an old chestnut, but your argument means we should legalise ecstasy, etc...

[Yusuf Smith]

WH Smith's have been putting various types of chocolate - usually not Chocolate Oranges but big bars of Cadbury's - for months. They are at the till and are sold at half price to people buying a paper or magazine. I'm not sure why DC mentioned the chocolate oranges because the big Cadbury's bars will obviously make you fatter! And it's recognised that sweets at checkouts are not a good thing anyway because of the pester-power issue.