Another example of the tabloidisation of the news was the report about the shocking wastage of food in this country.
‘One third of all food thrown in the bin shock,’ blared the headline. Whether this was one third in terms of cost, weight, volume or nutritional value was obviously too complicated to be mentioned.
The report continued with the information, the small print as it were, that one half of that third was inedible, including such things as potato peelings, egg shells, tea bags, fish bones and the fat from meat. The kind of thing that would have gone into pigswill before it was so foolishly banned.
I have a friend who was brought up to leave a little on his plate. He even leaves a few drops of beer at the bottom of his glass. It’s all very irritating to someone like me who was always told to clean his plate while thinking about the starving millions. If ever I offered to put my cabbage in an envelope and send it to India, I was rewarded for my altruism with a clip round the ear.
One sixth, of course, is not as dramatic, but never fear. They had another statistic ready. ‘It still means that 15 pence out of every pound spent goes in the bin.’ Well, that depends whether you eat eggs with your chips or caviar.
And they trotted out all the interest groups. Axes were being ground on all sides. Ready meals are the wrong size. Supermarkets are to blame for making food too cheap – yes, food is too cheap. The government is to blame for insisting on back-covering sell-by dates. Councils aren’t doing enough to recycle. The ice-caps are melting under the weight of tea bags, and the planet is being destroyed by rancid yoghurt.
All this was pushed aside the next day when suddenly we were told not to worry about teenage binge-drinkers. Now, the real problem is that of middle-aged, middle class tipplers, who knock back a bottle of wine every night. And what’s more, it’s going to get worse when smoking is banned in pubs.
‘One third of all food thrown in the bin shock,’ blared the headline. Whether this was one third in terms of cost, weight, volume or nutritional value was obviously too complicated to be mentioned.
The report continued with the information, the small print as it were, that one half of that third was inedible, including such things as potato peelings, egg shells, tea bags, fish bones and the fat from meat. The kind of thing that would have gone into pigswill before it was so foolishly banned.
I have a friend who was brought up to leave a little on his plate. He even leaves a few drops of beer at the bottom of his glass. It’s all very irritating to someone like me who was always told to clean his plate while thinking about the starving millions. If ever I offered to put my cabbage in an envelope and send it to India, I was rewarded for my altruism with a clip round the ear.
One sixth, of course, is not as dramatic, but never fear. They had another statistic ready. ‘It still means that 15 pence out of every pound spent goes in the bin.’ Well, that depends whether you eat eggs with your chips or caviar.
And they trotted out all the interest groups. Axes were being ground on all sides. Ready meals are the wrong size. Supermarkets are to blame for making food too cheap – yes, food is too cheap. The government is to blame for insisting on back-covering sell-by dates. Councils aren’t doing enough to recycle. The ice-caps are melting under the weight of tea bags, and the planet is being destroyed by rancid yoghurt.
All this was pushed aside the next day when suddenly we were told not to worry about teenage binge-drinkers. Now, the real problem is that of middle-aged, middle class tipplers, who knock back a bottle of wine every night. And what’s more, it’s going to get worse when smoking is banned in pubs.
I’ll finish now and have a large glass of Chateau Neuf du Pape, while searching for a recipe for potato peel wine.
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