There was an interesting story in the Herald yesterday that we didn't get to comment on before we had to go out last evening; check this out:
Labour is accusing National of doing a backroom deal with supermarket giants after a new store apparently flouted proposed law changes by placing alcohol at its front door.Alcohol reforms due to return to Parliament for their final stages this month would prevent supermarkets from putting beer and wine in places where it could not be avoided by customers.Labour associate health spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway said he was surprised to see alcohol at the front entrance of a Countdown supermarket in Palmerston North which opened on Wednesday."I queried that ... because obviously the Alcohol Reform Bill as it's drafted at the moment would make that illegal. It seemed an unusual thing to do when the law change is so imminent."
So we can't help but wonder; what planet does Iain Lees-Galloway inhabit? The law is the law is the law, and what the Countdown supermarket is currently doing is 100% permissable in the eyes of the law. That a law may change at some time in the future is completely and utterly irrelevant.
3 comments:
"The law is the law is the law..."
An excellent point IV2. Is that why you've been going on and on almost endlessly for weeks about the Greens complying with the law and parliamentary rules with respect to spending their allotted funding?
Perceptions bloody perceptions, Bugger.
I don't know if it's the Herald's addition, or derived from something Iain himself said, but the article definitely made it out like the government was conspiring with supermarkets to allow them to keep putting alcohol in conspicuous locations.
It's ridiculous - why would the government be helping companies to break one of their own laws?
Then there's the point that the law hasn't been passed yet.
This story was a beat up. There were two characters: One was a misinformed supermarket manager, and the other was a daft backbench MP trying to whip up a conspiracy theory.
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