In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act
How dare they, eh? How very dare they!
McDonald’s has thwarted attempts to stop it opening new outlets by stressing that it sells salad, promotes “healthier lifestyles” and sponsors local children’s football teams.
Public health experts claim the fast-food firm uses a “playbook” of questionable arguments and tough tactics to force local councils in England to approve applications to open branches.
The disclosures, in an investigation published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), set out how McDonald’s gets its way, especially when it appeals against councils’ decisions to block new openings.
Since 2020 it has lodged 14 such appeals with the Planning Inspectorate. So far it has won 11 of them and lost only one, and there are two others ongoing, the BMJ reported.
So someone uses the law as the law is meant to be used. To decide upon what is legal to do. This is an outrage.
The Guardian has not misrepresented the BMJ here either:
McDonald’s is overturning councils’ attempts to prevent new fast food outlets by claiming they will encourage healthier lifestyles, The BMJ can reveal.
The firm has used a playbook of arguments to win planning appeals against local authorities in some of England’s most deprived areas with the poorest public health outcomes. Its tactics include arguing that customers can order salad from its drive-through branches, that they could cycle or walk there, and that its sponsorship of local football teams promotes health and wellbeing.
McDonald’s has also deployed a specialist GP who claims that obesity is caused by “over 100” factors other than fast food and that its menu contains nutritious and low calorie options. In some cases McDonald’s threatened to force councils to repay its costs, saying that they had behaved “unreasonably.”
All of those claims are true. Which is, you know, good. We’re supposed to bring truth to the law, to a courtroom.
Experts tell The BMJ that the threat of a McDonald’s appeal has a chilling effect on councils and means they would be more inclined to wave through a planning application for a new branch regardless of the public health concerns, describing it as a “David and Goliath” battle.
By telling the truth McDonald’s is able to force councils to obey the law.
Gosh, revolutionary indeed.
Of course, these campaigners are convinced that fast food is the very devil and that McDonald’s is merely the vanguard of Lucifer’s Army. So they think it right to cut down every law in England to get at that devil. Hmm, yes:
Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
But perhaps that’s the point? That none be able to stand in those winds that would then blow?
Perhaps the outrage is that telling the truth can work against the revolution?
Tim Worstall