Above Their Weight

The Government's chums in the food industry, who did so much to make Twizzler Lansley's vision of the NHS a roaring success, have signed a responsibility pledge thingy about saturated fats. A cardiologist has asserted in the British Medical Journal that sugar is a bigger problem than saturated fats; other mere scientists have argued that the fashion for low-fat food may have done more harm than good because manufacturers tend to add yet more sugar to low-fat products in order to make them more interesting, rather like a minister padding out a thin policy with a rush to the rivers of blood.

Accordingly, the Government's chums in the food industry have pledged to cut the levels of saturated fats and not the levels of sugar: after all, why treat cancer with dangerous radiation and elaborate chemical concoctions when aspirin is so much simpler and cheaper? In open defiance of the prevailing theology, the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges has recommended a ban on fast-food outlets near Gove fast-practice outlets, and even went so far as to suggest interfering in the free market by taxing sugary drinks and restricting advertising. Presumably, in reaching a necessary compromise between an effective public health policy and a friendly climate for profiteers, the present sub-Liberal Democrat pledge was the best next-to-nothing that could be achieved.