Or ham, sausages, rashers either, or so it seemed for a while.
I was rummaging in my drawers last week and was lucky I didn’t get frostbite.
It’s the drawers in the freezer I’m talking about, and I vaguely remember buying a couple of pork steaks a few months ago when they were on special offer.
Yes, they were still there and I also came across a piece of roast pork. “Are they safe to eat,” I wondered “and did I buy them before or after the first of September?”
I racked my brains, like Bertie trying to recall dates before the tribunal, but couldn’t remember exactly when I bought the meat. We’ve all become experts on dioxins since the scare started and the reports say that the pork contained over 200 times the recommended levels. Then I read that this is about the same amount that’s present in a cigarette, so it’s not likely to do too much harm.
What should I do? There were three options, I reckoned. I could throw the pork out, eat it or put it back in the freezer. I’ve decided to live dangerously, so roast pork was back on the menu last weekend.
As I tucked into my Sunday roast I read an article in the Sunday Times which says that there’s over 5,000 times the permitted dioxin levels in the pork. This means I’ve gone from one to thirty cigarettes a day, which does sound a bit more dangerous.
I heard George Hook say that whoever is responsible should be taken out and shot, but, as usual, it’s unlikely that anyone will spend even a night behind bars.
Shop local
“This is no less than a call to patriotic action.” That was the message from Brian Lenihan on budget day.
The days of fighting for Ireland were over and the message now is that it’s time to shop for Ireland, especially over the Christmas period. That hasn’t stopped half the country making a break for the border and clearing the shelves in Newry and other towns up North.
Jim Power, an economist, described cross-border shopping trips as “the ultimate act of patriotic sabotage”. We haven’t heard language like this since the second world war, but it seems to have had little impact on shoppers. If people are willing to put up with spending a whole day driving and queuing to save a few Euros, well good luck to them, even though I think it’s all a bit nuts.
By the way, does anyone remember the Celtic Tiger? The newspapers and television were full of reports of people nipping over to New York for shopping sprees at this time of the year. There were no calls from politicians or economists telling us to stay home and do our patriotic duty, presumably because their own wives and friends were availing of the bargains. Different rules for different folks.
Christmas quiz
What costs €20 in Ireland, €10.70 in France and €4.80 in Spain?
That was the question last week and the answer is a packet of Tritace, a tablet that I take regularly on prescription. I’m not the first to bring up the price of medicines here, I’ve heard it discussed on Joe Duffy and in newspaper articles over the years, but nothing seems to be done about it. The usual arguments are put out about overheads and licensing regulations, but this couldn’t justify a 400 per cent price difference. Somebody is having a very costly laugh at the taxpayers’ expense.
Maybe that was OK during the good years when there was plenty of money sloshing around, or as Mary Harney put it, “The country is awash with money.” The only politician that I recall making an effort to put some control on the situation was our own John McGuinness, but Bertie banished him to the back benches for years for having the cheek to question the spending.
John is probably a lot closer to a cabinet seat than in those days and may even end up with the health portfolio. I hope he does and maybe we will finally get to the bottom of the medicine price mystery. Even if he manages to bring costs back to French levels, the country would save hundreds of millions. If he can’t, maybe he can arrange trips to Spain for patients. They could pick up a year’s supply of their medicines (don‘t worry about prescriptions, nobody looks for one ), get a bit of sun and save the government tens of millions at the same time. That would be one way of doing their “patriotic duty”.
Listen to the radio
I’ll be having my full Irish breakfast early next Sunday morning while listening to Sunday Miscellany which will feature a selection of local writers, including Gerry Moran, Kerry Hardie and Michael Coady.
It’s coming live from the Heritage Council headquarters up in the old Bishop’s Palace and might even help to shorten the journey for anyone stuck in the traffic jams outside Newry.
