I'm from the Government, and I'm here to improve your salt shaker....

This from Nanny Knows Best, concerning a British town council that got concerned with the excessive salt intake of patrons eating fish and chips:

As we know, Nanny hates salt.

The fact that people can die of salt deprivation (eg if they are sweating profusely and don't increase their salt intake, or drink too much water) seems to have escaped Nanny.

Nanny is determined to cut our salt intake.

To this end her chums on Rochdale council have come up with a brilliant solution. They have reduced the number of holes in the traditional chip shop saltshaker from 17to 5.

Brilliant!

The theory being that the less holes, therefore the less salt will be shaken onto the food by the customer when he/she is applying the "salt and vinegar".

Takeaways are being issued with catering-sized salt pots with just five holes in the lid, rather than the usual 17.

Of course now they'll have to regulate how many times you shake the shaker.