http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14927871

Some other ideas from the “nudge unit”:

• making drinkers more aware of how much alcohol others consume - on the basis that most people overestimate how much others drink
• removing alcohol from prominent positions at the front of supermarkets - Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose have already done so
• redesigning hospital prescription charts to cut down on errors due to incorrect completion and bad handwriting
• providing upfront rewards like shopping vouchers or council tax holidays to encourage household energy efficiency improvements - rafter than stressing the longer-term gains to be made
• altering letters to tax debtors to inform them that the majority of people in their area have already paid up and reminding them of the link between tax and local services - trials showed a 15% improvement in response rates
• placing declarations of honesty at the start of forms, not the end, to "prime" respondents to tell the truth, or requiring them to write out, by hand, an "honesty sentence"

At £500 000 per year if it works then the savings would be far larger. A simple cost benefit analysis would show that it pays, though considering the civil service are masters at making cheap public services look expensive next to expensive private provision I do not hold out much hope.

If they want to encourage people to lose weight give them rewards that are worthwhile like council tax exemptions, and things that they want.

It's sad that "things they want" doesn't include good health and mobility but probably includes "Free games console and life time supply of pizza and coke". I suspect Ernie might sign up for that

Yes but if it gets them to lose weight and they get a games console that is fine. As for pizza and coke it can be healthier than some of what they eat now. Why not have subsidised gyms for the paid? Many things could be better if they actually had joined up thinking.

Trying to get hold of some fags in France yesterday gave me a good idea of how they could make it harder for people in England. In France, you have to go to a tabac. As a true and proper addict, I managed it, but boy was it hard. We were at my uncle's and there's a tabac at the end of his street, but my wife had never seen the house and I wanted to be with her as she was shown round, so that was out. Then we had to go shopping, so we got in the car and went shopping, but supermarkets can't sell fags (and nor can the garage or the newsagents) and the supermarkets are in out of town industrial areas with no tabacs. I had to wait until we got home and borrowed my dad's car to drive to the local tabac before it shut at twelve to get my fags. In a country that has a fairly lax attitude to smoking, it sure is difficult to get hold of them. And it made me think, if they did that back home, you'd only get the hardcore actually smoking, it's a wonder anybody can be arsed to here. I really don't see how come so many of them do it.

Good idea but so many newsagents/tobacconists would close as that is a big source of their revenue. Forcing them to be sold separately would stop bargain deals at supermarkets etc.

It's all relative

The Lidl near my parents house close to Bordeaux sells fags by the counter.

Ironic really, since my local Lidl in England doesn't sell them at all.

Interesting as I don't think the lidl near my folks (near Bergerac) does, though I might check next time I go there.
Saint-Eutrope-de-Born, France



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