I posted this not long ago on Twitter:
Why are Labour refusing to talk about the real cause of the health crisis that we have in the UK, which is in turn quite literally feeding into our economic crisis?
I wish I knew.
What are they so frightened of?
Or is there sugar sponsorship in play?
We need to know. Wes Streeting wants to be health secretary for Labour and is not talking about the real issues that face the NHS and how we can address them. There have to be real questions about his suitability for office in that case.
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The questions about Streetings suitability to be even an MP have been around for some time. Specifically the support (donations?) he recieves from private medicine interests which de facto, have more interest in fixing things when they go wrong – rather than addressing causes. The brushing teeth shtick fits perfectly with the LINO approach of innocuous suggestions that cause little or no offense & nicely divert attention from the bigger issues.
As a previous post shows, politicos are the least trusted of a long list of professions. Even less trusted than estate agents (& hazarding a guess 2nd hand car salesmen). Streeting is a cipher & only interested in advancing his own interests. Like most of the LINO front bench – they have their eyes firmly fixed on Bliar and his wealth accumulation post-office. Holding office/political power is simply a route to that end goal.
Now children all brush your teeth properly! Pathetic.
Agreed
It’s funny how it’s OK to be the ‘nanny state’ when it saves vested interests from having to do the right thing eh?
Spot on PSR
Thatcher of course wouldn’t admit that running alongside the “nanny state” was the “handy state” for vested interests. Why should she? The vast majority of the electorate never read the small print or sweat the details. Gas lighting by politicians at face value receives widespread acceptance by most of the electorate!
It says it all when the current health secretary (Victoria Atkinson) is married to a top executive in the sugar industry.
The poor health and sickness of U.K. society is a huge factor in driving the NHS workload and undermining the economy. Physical, mental, dental. Not properly recognised by any party. It means tackling some big vested interests, food for starters, and may well be best tackled on a much more local basis. Most of the drivers lie outside of the NHS’s remit.
I can’t help thinking that there is probably a pretty good financial return on the money that needs spending.
I agree with your conclusion
Another example of various interests treating the symptoms and not the cause.
Why? Follow the money.
This is why Big Food tries to hide the quantities of sugar in food, by using alternative names, over 50 of them. See: https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/sugar-salt-and-fat/names-for-sugar-infographic/different-names-for-sugar
Thanks
Thank you, all, especially Richard.
Later this month, Streeting and Nandy meet the City to discuss how it can partner with the government in terms of funding and technical expertise to deliver healthcare and overseas development. New New Labour is obsessed with the City. Experts like Richard, Marmot, Mazzucato, Hudson, Sikka and Ha-Joon Chang are ignored. I would venture many Labourites don’t even know the names I mentioned exist.
About two decades and a decade ago, separate comments, it was pointed out that New Labourites came across the likes of Cameron at university and determined to make money like him, but this was easier in the Labour Party as they did not have the connections to prosper in the Tory party.
Now that would be a great bunch of names to add to the Bank of England’s MPC, if they really wanted to challenge groupthink, and consider factors outside the narrow world of the Bank’s orthodox economists.
Sugar consumption is well down on what it was 70 years ago. There are research articles comparing which countries eat the most processed food, ultraprocessed food, the most fruit and vegetables. The UK is in the middle third of these tables, apart from the 5-a-day table where it was near the top.
If Brits are unhealthy compared to other countries it is unlikely to be due to what we eat, we have to look elsewhere for an explanation. The most obvious places to look is at the health system we have which is rather different to other countries, and also at whether certain individuals with outlying characteristics are using a lot of resource and target them.
It would be illogical to target population measures though.
No citations, I note.
And nothing to suggest who funds you to say this.
What I do know is sugar consumption in the UK is six times recommended levels.
And when diabeticians and others break free from sugar funded organisations – when most of those dealing with diabetes are funded in that way – then they utterly disagree with you.
I think you’ll find all your data is sugar funded. Please don’t call again, especially with the far-right swipe at the NHS thrown it – which I did notice.
“Sugar consumption is well down on what it was 70 years ago”
This appears to be nonsense, and actually double what it was 70 years ago.
A recent paper concludes that “Excessive sugar intake early in life led to higher prevalence of chronic inflammation, diabetes, elevated cholesterol and arthritis” (Gertler, 2023)
Sources
Historical Changes in British Sugar Consumption and Potential Causes (2017)
https://chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/historical-changes-in-british-sugar-consumption-and-potential-causes/
“The Sweet Life: the Long-term Effects of a Sugar-rich Early Childhood”, Gertler (2013), Working Paper 30799 http://www.nber.org/papers/w30799
What a load of testicular material from our Janice.
In a food economy obsessed with low fat, shortenings in baking that helped biscuits and cakes stick together have been replaced with sugars.
Sugars help things to stick together – at the Technical Museum in Berlin I watched a 3-D printer print a vase that was being held together by sugars. Not glue.
Try eating some Oreo cookies or a Wagon Wheel or a Jammie Dodger or two these days. Note how brittle they are now and how they sort of shatter in your mouth rather than crumble up? That’s sugar.
It is also used as preservative to replace the obsession with salt.
Sugar is becoming more prevalent in society – not less. And it has snuck into these roles far too easily.
And where else does the sugar epidemic hit us? Why, alcohol of course. ‘Been out on a Saturday night recently anyone? Know someone who knocks back a bottle of wine on their own? This country has an alcohol problem and sugar is part of that.
The worst of it is is that sugar ends up being stored in the body as fat because of the way the body processes it chemically (as I understand it).
“If Brits are unhealthy compared to other countries it is unlikely to be due to what we eat” Are you serious? Look around in any grocery store and most of the produce they sell is processed food full of sugar in any form.
Also, did you ask yourself why those ‘certain individuals with outlying characteristic’ are more likely to be using extra NHS resources? Hint – a bad diet of processed foods lacking nutrients containing tons of sugar.
The government in cahoots with the sugar industry guarantees a continuously increasing strain on the NHS resources.
Richard is absolutely right, your comment is nonsence. A couple of weeks ago I attended an event at the Royal Society of Medicine in London focused on innovation. During one presentation we were shown a glass jar full of the teeth, all extracted from just one child under general anaesthesia. We were then told the appalling statistic that dental extraction under general was the most common pediatric surgical procedure in the UK! I had one filling when I was a child and I think it was a milk tooth so no longer in my mouth. I had a filling some years ago and I am proud to say only a couple of teeth pulled that made room in my overcrowded mouth. Now well into retirement and despite fairly average brushing habits, I have retained most of my teeth due to my genuine distaste for sugar.
Even avoiding ultra processed foods, as someone who carefully reads labels, it is distressing to see some type of sugar added to everything from bread to mustard. What is even more infuriating, and downright unhealthy, is finding a toxic combination of too much sugar hidden by too much salt. I would specifically target this sugar/salt combination with a new tax designed to coerce food manufacturers into reducing this dangerous mix. That way you cannot be accused of depriving poor children of the right to a sweet treat, but you can still reduce the most serious contamination of our food supply.
Thanks
Here’s the latest piece of nonsense from the Labour Party, the “do nothing” party:-
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/07/labour-plan-to-insulate-19m-homes-thrown-into-doubt-over-debt-fears
I still can’t help feel that they are adopting the bluster and waffle politics (served the Johnson term well), to get them over the line on the election, then we will see what happens.
What on earth are fiscal rules? Is the fiscal rule book a publication? It is possible to have a set of rules which are not visible? I`m very impressed by the thoughtfulness displayed on this blog, both by the author and many of the respondents, and I wish sincerely that our “leaders” might have been of this caliber. A classics degree from Oxford which contains no Ancient Greek, or a PPE, are not enough to qualify a real leader.
Please may I in this space recommend the work of Prof. Joshua Silver, who has made good vision possible for many less fortunate people, but is also fighting legally to prove that rights, once granted, are irredeemable. Specifically, British rights to E.U, citizenship rights.
And while he’s at it Wes should also tackle the supermarkets.
Apparently recent research shows that all the nations problem drinkers shop at Asda.
It’s also worth noting that taking fat out of foods reduces its flavour, which is then replaced by sugar and salt. The fear of natural fats, ie butter and lard, have led to them being replaced by vegetable oils which contain high amounts of Omega 6, which is known to be inflammatory. A good source for information on this is “Low Carb Down Under” on Youtube. See in particular Nina Teicholz who gives an excellent talk on highly processed seed oils.
Reccomended read :
“What your food ate” by David R Montgomery and Anne Biklé.