Yet again, today's news carries a story that makes me despair of the activities of Government. Today's piece of nonsense involves the labelling of food, which hardly seems to be something for Government to be concerned about.
Apparently, our food is currently labeled in a variety of different ways, specifically in relation to the content - the amounts of salt, fat, sugar, calories and so on, are described or set out in different ways, and Government thinks this should all be standardized. They are, therefore, about to embark on a 12 week long consultation involving food manufacturers, supermarkets and, God help us, 'health experts'. Presumably, once the consultation has been completed, the results will be collated and analysed, legislation will be drafted and a Bill will be pushed through Parliament so that all packaging will carry the same basic style of presentation by some as yet indeterminate date in the future. At a time when the country and, indeed, most of the western world, is facing its greatest crisis since WW2, is there really any sense in this ? Is it actually achievable and will it really have the desired effect ?
Changing the packaging of foodstuffs will cost businesses money and the costs will be passed on to already hard-pressed consumers. Will the the packaging of foodstuffs coming into the country from abroad be subject to the same rules and, if so, how will the rules be enforced on overseas manufacturers ? How many people ever read these nutritional notes on the packaging of their food and how many really care what the details are ? To extend the likely scope of the eventual legislation, will the same information be provided for restaurant and 'take-away' meals and, if so, how ?
Government seems hell-bent on saving us from ourselves and on compelling us to do whatever they feel is 'right' and in our 'best interests'. In doing this, they regularly find themselves having to change their 'guidance' as the professional advice changes or the mania of the 'Health NAZI's' rounds on a particular subject, such as smoking or alcohol. The inevitable result of all this Government interference in our eating habits will be the imposition of punitive taxes on foods that are deemed unhealthy, followed by a requirement for bland packaging, and then hiding the 'undesirable' products in the same manner in which cigarettes are now to be treated. Eventually, certain foods will be banned, in our best interests. Alcohol products will, of course, be the first to suffer this treatment, but foods with too much salt, fat or sugar will soon follow.
This may all seem fanciful rubbish but anyone who's ever read '1984' will already know how close we are getting to a world in which our every movement is monitored and controlled by centralised Government authorities. Successive governments have already totally destroyed our economy and education system, and we are well on the way to seeing our health and transport systems turned in to objects of international ridicule. And still they pretend they know what they're doing and try to impose ever more control over the actions of the people.
There will be revolution, the only question is when.
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