Fighting the flab or fooling us twice?

Government spin or genuine intent? The Times is reporting today that Boris Johnson is determined to improve the health of the country post Covid having had an epiphany during his own brush with death ™, attributable to his BMI.

With rates of diabetes on the increase in the western world, and moving into the new burgeoning economies as traditional diets fall to western marketing and corporations, this should be welcome.

But, I can’t ignore a lingering doubt. IF the government were genuinely minded to do this why have they, over years in place, swerved sugar taxes, ripped up playing fields, allowed fast food sponsorship of sporting events, cosied up to the industrial food industry? Epiphanies are by their nature sudden changes in tack and this may well be one but, to use a suitable idiom, the proof of this particular pudding will be in the eating.

There is a whiff of triangulation about this. That wonderful modern political idea that says you take a problem, work out all the responses and sit in the middle. Current public pre-occupation with health plus evidence that obesity and diabetes are major factors in Covid deaths has pushed the Overton window on this one in a definite direction and a cynic would see the story as a political response, not a policy response, to this.

A similar game is going on with environmental policy. Let’s not forget that this year was to be COP 26 in Glasgow, trailed by many as the last chance to drive meaningful action on the climate emergency. Let us also not forget that the preparations for COP were a mess. Leaderless, directionless, the UK was all set to fumble their big moment. Covid does have some upsides for our Government it would seem….

The climate Overton window has also moved. Experiencing cleaner air, seeing local environments up close without the hurry of work and commuting and ‘normal’ lives, timelines are full of photos of nature reborn or rediscovered. Yet triangulation here also applies, bailouts for polluters continue alongside commitments to green change.

The two are linked. Health of the individual and health of the climate are inextricably bound together. Headline grabbing factory farming and the globalisation of food production is suspect number one for the genesis of the pandemic. Encroachment into the natural word to fuel more industrial farming the first horseman of a coming apocalypse that may already be upon us. Sedentary lifestyles plus growth economics plus rampant consumer acquisition creates a perfect storm that is poised to get us whether by pestilence through novel viruses, famine through land degradation, war for the scarce productive land and water leading to death.

So, what seems a positive could be a harbinger of the darker inaction that plagues the UK (and many other governments) over the necessary massive systemic changes needed to ensure life on earth. I just hope I’m the cynic.