Have the Tories scored an own goal over food packaging?

kinglear

I don't get the problem - a group says traffic light not good, and Rawnsley says maybe we should change it?> Is anyone else even mentioning whether its good or bad??

Simon

This really isn't something to get hot under the collar about.

The traffic light system doesn't work.

You don't need to be big business to know this.

If this is the only thing that can be used against the Tory party - it shows how weak the other parties (and the media) have become

James

This is so idiotic by the Tories. I am a Conservative voter - but still can't work out why they try to pull this stunt over and over again. They need to figure out quickly that it is possible to be pro-business and pro-consumer at the same time - they are not mutually exclusive.

I have always felt that the Tories could make a real stand on championing clear and simple information for consumers (food and financial products being the obvious quick wins). This would be in line with the need to increase competition and choice. It could also run parallel to the need to strip away pointless red tape that doesn't add value.

The traffic light system is certainly a little over-simplistic, but is far better than the alternative. Unilever and the other food companies constantly manipulate the typical portion sizes to make their foods appear healthier than they are. A combination of the two systems would be ideal - but this is still blocked by Unilever.

Alex

Non-story I think. The general public have better things to be concerned about than food packaging at the moment.

Saying that, I'm sure the BBC will milk it for all it's worth.

Nicholas

Oh no. Not more nannyism. After 11 years of the national socialists don't the Tories realise that a largely silent majority just want to be left alone by the government to lead their own lives?

Food labeling for goodness sake? That should be sorted out by a dull committee of civil service boffins in a dusty back room - not a Tory working group. These trendy issues matter to who? A perceived voting group of earnest nose-pokers. I cannot understand why the Tories are jumping on this petty, puerile bandwagon.

What we want is a working group to dismantle Herr Braun's national socialist state and all its East German trappings - not an opposition party proposing more of the same.

Burton

Governments make the law, not take it. Yes they can consult Unilever when they draft laws, and they'll get their forceful lobbying as a result. But you don't appoint them to run the review!

Dave Lewis, the chairman of Unilever's operation in the UK, owes his allegiance to Unilever first: they pay him.

A lot of people are sick of this government but the Tories risk being discovered as equally spineless.

Scary Biscuits

This is like Cameron's comment about chocolate oranges (where he opined that they shouldn't be sold by tills in WHSmith, as they were encouraging obesity).

The trouble with the modern Conservative Party is that it is in favour of liberty... except when people don't make the right choice. That is, they are really authoritarians who just use the language of Edmund Burke because it goes down well with their activists, and much of the country, but really they just want power for themselves.

Nowhere is this clearer than on Europe. 'Subsidiarity' should mean devolving power to the lowest practical authority. In the mind of most MPs, however, it simply means giving the power down to them but no further.

Venture Creature

Dietitians are very clear that people should not think of good and bad foods (which increases guilt and negative feelings about eating 'Bad' food). Instead you need a balanced diet to suits ones personal circumstances when it is taken as a whole.

The traffic light system is based on the idea of good and bad foods and does not help match a diet to personal circumstances.

Why is it a good idea? It is directly contra to standard dietetic advice.

The FSA promotes anorexia, guilt and binges. Great.

The GDA system gives in accessible form the information you need to develop a balanced diet. It does not over-simply.

I suspect the supermarkets like it because it doesn't label cream cakes or pate as 'bad'.

But thats the point - they are not - it is how the are consumed that creates the issue.

James

I don't think this is necessarily a non-story for the following reasons:

1. Britain is war-weary and as a result most people don't want to hear about Georgia or think about war with Russia

2. The Government is being quiet at the moment - economy is bad but news is failing to shock.

3. People are looking for a coherant message from the Tories and instead they get this. The announcement is the worst of all worlds - pointless, doomed to failure, smacks of self-interest and gives left-wing elements of the media a stick to beat them with.

I am sure come September real news will quickly overshadow this. But in the meantime I wish the Tories would either put together a coherant message for the voters or stay quiet and let Labour shoot themselves.

Fergus Pickering

Food-packaging? Tell me something more boring.

Wilfred

I agree with Nicholas - this really is just petty tinkering, and it smacks of not having any other, good, ideas.

Especially given the size and mulitiplicity of the targets set up by New Labour, all of which are begging for a conservative revolution.

Marian C

Nicholas - "Oh no. Not more nannyism. After 11 years of the national socialists don't the Tories realise that a largely silent majority just want to be left alone by the government to lead their own lives"

I'm with you on this one, I'm fed up to the back teeth of being what I can do, what I can say, what can I eat. I don't care whether they stick food products with traffic lights, flashing lights or skulls & crossbones; if I want to purchase the damned thing, then I will. No government minister is going to tell me what I can and cannot eat!!

Verity

David Cameron's an interferer and he shouldn't be leading the Conservative Party. The major Clue-Bat, a couple of years ago, was A-lists. The sheer, towering impertinence! That's when I realised he's a bossy little creep and just as controlling as any sociailist.

Let's_Govern_Ourselves_Again

Since Mr Cameron last proposed this (early 2007), food labelling has not ceased to be an exclusive competence of the EU. Dr North saw through the posturing back then:
http://tinyurl.com/6jsuo3

Rex Burr

Don’t buy the packaged stuff. You can’t afford it, remember.
You buy meat at the meat counter. You buy veg at the veg counter. You cook and eat slightly less than you think you need. What is the problem?

Hereford

Labelling systems that inform people about whether or not food is good for them are totally useless. The people who read them will always be the people who do not need to read them, because they think about what they are eating.

The people these initiatives are aimed at only look at two things. The appetising picture on the box and the price label.

People make choices in their lives. We need to allow people to make these choices and require them to accept the consequences.

Anyway, who costs the state more. The person who eats, drinks or smokes themselves into an early grave or the person who lives to 106?

I bet if you do the maths it works out about equal.

Don't be conned again

This is the most craven sell out to Big Food. The worrying thing is that this is what they are prepared to do in opposition.

Imagine the Tories in government - McDonalds running school catering?

Forget global warming - with the Tories in charge/neglect Britain will sink under the weight of its own people! God help the NHS.

Fergus Pickering

No, the fat, boozy smokers have it. We should encourage them. They pay lots of tax and don't live to collect.They? mean we. It's true I don't smoke. Sorry about that. Just not trying.