You are what (they let you) eat
: Jackie is watching a sad British reality show — the debate by MPs trying to natter and nanny their citizens’ diets:
Before falling asleep, I’d been deeply engrossed in a BBC Parliament broadcast of a meeting of the House of Commons health committee. Representatives from Cadbury Schweppes and Pepsi were trying to explain to the MPs why TV advertising of junk food shouldn’t be banned. The MPs quite frankly didn’t seem to get it, with one (whose name I forget) saying with no small amount of awe in his voice, “The more effective your advertising, the more crisps and chocolate bars you’ll sell!” No sugar, Sherlock.
The concept of personal choice seems foreign to this lot, and the idea that the government should perhaps not be in the business of trying to save people from every possible bad choice they are now free to make — right down to an ill-advised packet of crisps, piece of shortbread or can of fizzy drink — seems not to have occurred to them. Or if it has, they’ve dismissed it and carried on with the desperate urge to nanny.
