Sources tell Guido that Henry Dimbleby’s new “National Food Strategy” – an upcoming review commissioned by the government to investigate ways of reducing the “damage” of our food system – will argue that the UK has become trapped in a “junk food cycle“, and that breaking out of it requires implementing (as rumoured) a £3 per kg tax on sugar and a £6 per kg tax on salt. Apparently, the tax is part of our duty to “protect the NHS“; all pretty rich from the man who co-founded the Leon fast food chain. Although Leon does market itself as “natural”, so maybe they’re above reproach – it’d still add about 20p to the cost of their meatballs, though…
The news comes on the same day that the government appears to have smuggled in a clause to the Health and Care Bill which allows the Health Secretary to unilaterally decide what constitutes “less healthy food” in respect to online and TV advertising:
“For the purposes of the Bill, a food or drink product is ‘less healthy’ if it falls within a description specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State, and it is ‘less healthy’ in accordance with the relevant guidance.”
Guido’s said it before: nannying plans like these are a waste of time. They won’t cut obesity, and they won’t ‘protect’ the NHS. All they’ll do is hurt small businesses and leave a dent in people’s wallets.
The government has announced it is pressing ahead with plans to ban ‘unhealthy‘ food ads online, and on TV before 9 pm, albeit with some exemptions for small and medium-sized businesses. Under the new proposals, companies with fewer than 250 employees will still be able to market their fatty foods as before, and even giants like McDonald’s can continue advertising brand-only material. So presumably they’ll refocus their ads on the quality of their coffee and carrot sticks…
The problem now, as the IEA’s Christopher Snowden argues, is that the policy is completely ham-fisted:
“Under the new plans, an apple pie can be advertised by a café but not by the McDonalds next door. The local takeaway can advertise kebabs and pizzas but Asda cannot advertise cheese.”
The ASI’s Matthew Lesh spells out the costs involved in this nannying endeavour:
Not only do the exemptions undermine the spirit of the policy, there isn’t even a clear definition for “junk food” in the first place. Initially, it was any food deemed “high in fat, salt and sugar”, though once the government realised that would even ban products like honey, jam, and avocados, they very quickly added a load of arbitrary exemptions. As far as Guido’s concerned, the policy should be pro-cake, pro-advertising it…
Government Health Minister Jo Churchill, speaking to the zealots of the Smoking & Health All Party Parliamentary Group, described their proposal to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 as “interesting”. In the Zoom meeting, Churchill also congratulated members of APPG for their tireless work on “tobacco control”. Her comments sound terrifyingly Orwellian…
She adds that the recommendations discussed in the APPG report reflect the “same priorities that we [the government] are looking at for the new strategy.” According to the 2021 Nanny State Index, lifestyle restrictions on eating, drinking, and smoking have all steadily increased across Europe for the past four years. As Covid restrictions are slowly lifted, the government needs to stop its nannying and let people live their lives in peace…
The APPG for Smoking & Health today called on the government to increase the age at which you can buy cigarettes from 18 to 21. The group of nannies believes this will end the “tobacco epidemic” by the end of the decade. Just one hiccup – 60% of MPs on the APPG believe the voting age should be lowered to 16…
Guido has compiled the list of the 9 MPs who believe that 16 year-olds are mature enough to decide the fate of this country, yet won’t be ready for another 5 years until they are 21 years-old to decide for themselves whether or not to smoke:
As Guido previously reported, lifestyle restrictions on eating, drinking, and smoking have steadily increased across Europe in the past 4 years. Maybe just let adults decide for themselves…
The Nanny State Index (NSI) has been updated for 2021, and it makes for grim reading for any libertarian – with author Christopher Snowdon claiming “everything is steadily getting worse” and that “all the momentum is with the paternalists of ‘public health’” in the wake of the pandemic. Lifestyle restrictions on eating, drinking, smoking, and vaping have all steadily increased across Europe for the past four years…
Although the UK has fared better than the continent this year, dropping from fourth in its paternalism ranking down to twelfth, this is more a reflection of the downward trend in other European countries than of any liberalising agenda within the UK:
“It is a sign of how much nanny state activity there has been in Europe since 2019 that the United Kingdom has slipped from fourth place to eleventh in the table without liberalising anything. This can be partly explained by the government freezing beer and spirits duty since 2018 and freezing wine duty in 2020. Adjusted for income, its alcohol taxes are now only the ninth highest of the 30 countries in the index. It also helps that the UK takes a common sense approach to e-cigarettes… It remains to be seen whether the government uses Brexit as an opportunity for further liberalisation, but it remains highly paternalistic on food, soft drinks and tobacco.”
The nannying countries at the top of the table – Norway, Lithuania, and Finland – don’t boast higher life expectancies or lower hospitalisations connected to smoking or drinking, though that hasn’t stopped governments pushing illiberal policies further and further – especially under the cover of the pandemic. It’s gesture politics at its most dangerous.
The Government this week published its consultation on banning online advertising for so-called ‘junk food’. Guido has reported before how there is no legal definition of ‘junk food’, and regulations would end up banning yoghurts, pesto, and raisins. Now the madness is spreading to a much more pervasive sphere than TV or the tube – online. The original plans were to ban the promotion tasty food online before the 9pm watershed, but now this has morphed into a total and complete shutdown. Banning ads for everyone from Wedding Cake businesses to local bakeries…
Disregarding the wider question of is it in the public interest to further undermine the media which is already struggling with reduced advertising revenues, the IEA’s Chris Snowdon details many ridiculosities of the new proposal in a must read blog. One striking example would be the banning of adverts for coronation chicken in time for the Queen’s newly announced four day Platinum Jubilee Holiday (Thursday June 2 to Friday June 5, 2022). Brits would be forbidden from including coronation chicken or commemorative shortbread in ads to celebrate the occasion. That’s just un-British.
