Political Print

If only the prime minister showed as much enthusiasm for a promised national food strategy as he does for Peppa Pig. By Nick Hughes. At least 16,000 healthy pigs have been culled and incinerated in the UK since the summer due to a shortage of capacity in abattoirs; yet it feels entirely in keeping with…

The government’s laissez-faire approach to the crisis engulfing UK food supply chains risks storing up long-term problems, says Nick Hughes. As parliament resumed this week the prime ministerial in-tray will have been piled unusually high with issues of national importance. Any one of coronavirus, Afghanistan or social care alone are weighty enough to give most…

The government is facing some inconvenient truths as patience with its green promises begins to dry up. David Burrows reports. “I am an environmentalist,” declared Michael Gove in July 2017. “We need to maintain and enhance the natural world around us, or find ourselves facing disaster.” He talked of better protection of the marine environment,…

The environment department still burns or buries 60% of its waste and is struggling to reduce its emissions. With COP26 looming it needs to set an example, says David Burrows. David Cameron went from hugging huskies and promising the greenest government ever to cutting the green crap. Boris Johnson, his successor bar one, is now…

The UK government wants to promote controversial crop-breeding technologies like gene editing. Foodservice businesses need to be part of the debate, says Nick Hughes. “Now that we have left the EU, we are free to make coherent policy decisions based on science and evidence.” So declared the environment secretary George Eustice last week as he…

The government’s tin-eared response to the pandemic and Brexit has left question marks over the Conservative’s long-term appeal to businesses, argues Nick Hughes. There was a time not so long ago when the food supply chain was largely gilded in Conservative blue. Farmers by and large have traditionally sworn their allegiance to Tory MPs who…

The arms-length agency was making slow progress in tackling obesity, but axing it with no replacement is an act of national self-harm, argues Nick Hughes. As the government U-turns continue to stack up, the scrapping of Public Health England (PHE) may not, by strict definition, count among their number. But be in no doubt: abolishing…

As the UK Government tees up new deals, relaxing food standards in return for market access at a time of planetary breakdown smacks of the worst kind of short-termism. By Nick Hughes. Of all the insights gleaned during lockdown, the fact that chicken is a national obsession is among the most conclusive. As post-lockdown queues…