Stephanie Dearden
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Tooting
Tel: 020-7771-2551 or 07985 649807
Letters to the Editor
Tuesday, 1st November 2005
Government Failing on Children's Food Bill
SIR-
Despite 260 MPs signing an Early Day Motion showing their support for the Children's Food Bill the Government was not prepared to at least allow the Bill its second reading.
The Liberal Democrats were pleased to support the Children's Food Bill in its aims to stop the marketing of fatty, sugary and salty foods to children, and to equip all schoolchildren with cooking skills. The Government's proposals to improve school dinners, albeit under funded, and to remove unhealthy foods from school vending machines are good news for children's health, but even more needs to be done to address increasing rates of childhood obesity, and to take tough action to address the nation's 'diet time bomb'.
Some of the proposals might appear rather illiberal but I believe that there is no choice but that the government make significant interventions to tackle poor nutrition. For too long we have allowed food marketing companies to influence our family diets. We must now empower our citizens to lead a healthy lifestyle. Action now is imperative and an obvious starting point is children.
Studies suggest that more than 1 million children in the UK are obese. Obesity is linked to a wide range of serious illnesses which are storing up a huge National Health Service bill for the future. For every £1 spent promoting health eating, £500 is spent marketing unhealthy food, so the market has clearly failed."
What is the point of spending a fortune on key stage 3 secondary strategies when so many kids are just not capable of learning as their brains are not functioning?
Jamie Oliver's campaign is not affecting our students—they will run offsite to the chip shop or bring their junk food in with them, despite having a canteen with healthy options."
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
more: http://www.stephaniedearden.org/reports/GovtPoorCommitment2ChildHealth011105.htm
The Bill, which has support from 150 national organisations including many prominent medical, health and consumer organisations, professional associations and children's charities, sought to introduce a range of statutory measures to improve children's diets and future health, recognising that touch action is necessary to address a number of factors, including marketing to children of foods containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt, the poor composition of foods on sale in schools, the lack of practical cooking skills in the national curriculum and insufficient promotion to children of healthy foods.
EDM 378
ENDS
Stephanie Dearden
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Tooting
Notes to editors