Confused by the Confusion.

Yesterday’s early evening news bulletin on BBC1 gave a great deal of air time to something that is causing grave concern to the nation. Supermarkets are labelling some of their packaged food with two dates: one that says ‘Display until’ and another that says ‘Use by.’ Sometimes they’re not the same, and this is becoming a Matter of National Outrage. Several members of the public were interviewed, and stated most indignantly that they found this practice very confusing.

Maybe I can help. Listen up everybody. The ‘Display until’ date is the date beyond which the item shouldn’t displayed. The ‘Use by’ date is the date by which the product should be used. If that’s still confusing, think of it this way: tomorrow is Saturday, the day after will be Sunday. It’s that simple. Got it?

‘These are small, but the ones out there are far away.’

I think the great British public is going the way of Dougal McGuire. The nanny state is making such ninnies of us that people can hardly function these days without verbal or numerical instructions to guide them; and when they’re given such instructions, they get confused anyway. The ‘Use by’ date isn’t even writ in stone, for God’s sake. I frequently use milk that’s three or four days beyond the date given. If it smells OK and doesn’t curdle in hot tea, it’s drinkable and there’s no way I’m going to chuck it.

The programme also gave a figure for the amount of food that’s thrown away in Britain every year. It works out at over £600 worth per person. That’s not only astonishing, it’s criminal.  It seems that today’s highly educated populace is suffering severe atrophy of the brain, as well as becoming ever more dependent on nanny state to help them make their way through life.