It's been fascinating chatting to our work experience students over recent weeks, as they spend time learning about putting a newspaper together and broadcasting radio shows.
They've all said to me they get their news from a variety of sources, including TikTok, but much like video hasn't yet killed the radio star, social media hasn't seen off traditional media. I worry that a lot of UK politics is becoming driven by the search for a catchy slogan, though, as our attention spans dwindle whilst we drown in a sea of notifications. This is why I'll always love a proper newspaper and a cup of tea, with my phone on silent. There really is nothing like it.
One theme that's been common in all of our students' answers is their acknowledgement that you can't always trust the information you read on the internet. This is reassuring for me, as clearly we live in an age of 'alternative facts' and algorithms designed to send us down an echo chamber which plays to our views.
I worry that that the likes of Prime Minister's Questions have become tailored to the social media clip. The obsession with a soundbite that will look good on Twitter can denigrate the quality of debate, and in 2023 I feel PMQs really isn't a good shop window for UK politics. For a start, very few questions actually receive anything resembling an answer. As for Rishi Sunak's five key pledges, I've heard a number of interviewers try and fail to get an answer to their enquiry, only to be met with him parroting this last back at them like it's a Tesco shopping list. It's the one that ends with "stop the boats", which is in itself a crass slogan if you ask me.
Something I've heard very little about from the government is the health of Britain's children. Jamie Oliver has said this week that vulnerable kids should be given free school meals, and I agree. No child should be learning on an empty stomach, and so much money is wasted elsewhere that could easily pay for this to be eradicated. Oliver also says all pupils leaving education should learn how to cook at least ten dishes. As long as several of them can involve fish fingers, I might just be able to stretch to that total.
Joking aside, obesity is a health ticking time bomb, and Henry Dimbleby, the co-founder of food chain Leon, has joined Oliver in endorsing a ban on children seeing junk food advertising. This has to extend to the likes of YouTube, as simply introducing measures on traditional TV would be a waste of time, given how few young folk watch anything in real time. Alas, the days of the Radio Times and a highlighter pen at Christmas are becoming a thing of the past for anyone under the age of 30.
Speaking at the Future of Britain conference, Jamie Oliver laid out three priorities for improving the health of Britain's children. Free school meals for primary age pupils, restriction on junk food advertising, and knowing how to cook ten recipes, seems like a reasonable trio of aims to me. The recent craze for Prime Energy is a case in point, with more regulation needed to ensure kids don't get their hands on drinks which are packed full of caffeine and sugar (although I'm sure Prime would point out their caffeinated product is not aimed at children).
Voluntary measures won't work, and we need to free ourselves of the unhelpful "nanny state" label, in my opinion. The food industry is powerful, and it seems the government is happy to kick any junk food strategy into the long grass. Sugar is addictive, and I find it powerful when Jamie Oliver points out it would take a reduction of only 25 calories per person per day to "stop weight gain all together at a national level".
The money raised from a new "sugar and salt reformulation tax" could go towards helping poorer families to buy fresh produce, and even fund cooking lessons. Lose that fear of being judgmental, and bring in some practical measures to help people make better choices, and I'm convinced we could turn the tide of obesity. It's a lot easier to be a critic on the sidelines, but now's the time for some concrete action. Our future health depends on it.
