April 22, 2012
The Progressive impulse to totalitarianism … [Darleen Click]
… because, in the words of David Thompson, they care so very, very much.
The prime minister must act decisively on unhealthy eating and poor nutrition.
Because it is Government’s job to police your every mouthful. And those unhelpful government members who believe in such quaint concepts as liberty and ::::shudder::: personal responsibility?
Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, prefers to address the country’s profound problems of bad diet via a voluntary “responsibility deal” with the food industry, rather than through legislation. It is a naive response, and one which the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the most influential medical body in the land, described last week as “inherently flawed” and doomed to fail.
The experts have spoken, top experts. It’s not like we haven’t had your best interest at heart before …
Jamie Oliver, interviewed in today’s Observer Food Monthly, laments the lack of government action on obesity. His judgment is a harsh one, but difficult to dispute, given the coalition’s lack of effective action. Professor Terence Stephenson, the doctor leading the academy’s new inquiry into obesity, has floated possible measures, including “fat taxes”, limits on fast-food outlets near schools and an end to “irresponsible” marketing of unhealthy foodstuffs. He believes the history of public health, on issues such as seatbelts, drink-driving and smoking, shows that sometimes government action is needed, and that obesity’s worsening effects – as a cause of illness, a drain on the NHS and a drag on people’s self-esteem – make this another such moment.
Shut up, we say …
[I]f the answers, whatever they are, involve challenging corporate power and practices, legislating to improve the content of food or even limiting individuals’ freedom to consume junk, then so be it.
SOURCE: Protein Wisdom
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