Tony Blair says junk food should be made too expensive for the poor to afford through new sugar and salt taxes to tackle obesity : unitedkingdom

[–] wiccan2@feddit.uk 108 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

How about instead of punishing "the poor" with new taxes we just made healthy food cheaper.

How about actually giving people the time to actually prepare a healthy meal.

No one wants to spend 30mins to an hour cooking a good meal when they only get 4 hours of time to themselves a day. Reduce everyone's working hours and make them actually want to live a healthy life rather than treating them like consumables to be used up by businesses and replaced with their offspring.

This is exactly the kind of thing is expect from someone so far removed from the day to day reality of normal people.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I said it above, but buying the fresh produce and ingredients to cook up a meal, note costs me just as much as it would to go grab fast food. And like you said, it saves me the time and saves me having to be in a hot kitchen for an hour when it's 35⁰ c outside.

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[–] Kevin11@lemdro.id 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What if, instead of perpetuating the narrative of diet culture and "healthy food" vs. "junk food", we worked harder to provide food for those who actually need food. What if, and hear me out here, we educated people on making healthy decisions and more importantly, maintaining a healthy, positive relationship with food and their bodies?

[–] SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Isn't healthier eating more about convenience than education or anything else. If it's easier for people to eat healthy compared to eating unhealthy, they'll take that up.

Path of least resistance and all that

[–] Kevin11@lemdro.id 2 points 2 years ago

That's a good point, I hadn't considered that! Have a lovely day.

[–] NuPNuA@lemm.ee -1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Meal prep then, cook a big meal or two on Sunday and eat them though the week.

[–] Lazylazycat@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

There's so much that's less than ideal about this. A lot of people don't have a big freezer. Some can't afford to pay for bulk ingredients up front. Some people won't have a half day spare to spend it cooking, especially if they have kids. And then there's the depressing aspect of eating the same food everyday.

I'm lucky I enjoy cooking so don't mind it taking up my evenings (nor do I have kids or a small freezer or work full time on minimum wage) but even I balk at the thought of meal prepping.

[–] Borkingheck@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

2 meals for 5 days is pretty boring also, it takes a significant amount of time of my Sunday to batch cook. Preparing the meals, cooking, cooling, portioning, and washing. Not to mention there is still plenty of time to he spent preparing the meal on the day such as cooking veg, rice, pasta etc to go with it.

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[–] DoneItDuncan@feddit.uk 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Can people please stop asking Tony Blair for his opinions?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Let's ask Tony Blair what he thinks about your idea.

[–] raoul@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 2 years ago (5 children)

It's me or this is stupid and paternalist? What are "the poors" gonna eat then?

[–] czarrie@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

The rich at this rate

[–] TheBawbe83@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What are “the poors” gonna eat then?

Well, there was a famous woman some years back who suggested cake as a viable alternative...

[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Too much sugar

[–] Jabbawacky@feddit.uk 5 points 2 years ago

Soylent green! Made from their unfortunate neighbours.

[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Sugar free cake

[+] AProfessional@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] naught@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 years ago

Do you mean government subsidized highly addictive, processed, junk food with predatory marketing pushed by gigantic multinational corporations? Do not shirk their responsibility in this. It's not the average person's fault.

[–] raoul@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My problem is the whole "poor people eat poorly because they are stupid. I will force them to take the good decision"

[–] TheaoneAndOnly27@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

100%. I did my undergraduate degree in public health, and one thing that I constantly saw about program development for nutrition and food subsidy programs was people thinking that the main issue to an individual getting proper nutrition was not having an education on how to cook or recognize nutritious versus non-nutritious foods. So they wanted to have stupid bullshit like nutrition classes for snap benefits. Where you wouldn't get the benefits unless you took the classes, how fucking shortsighted and missing the entirety of the issue. As if a single parent who's working two jobs is going to have the time to cook or even the time to grocery shop well.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why is every politicians answer to everything "make the poor pay more money!"?

If I go buy the ingredients to make cheeseburgers for my family nowadays, out will cost just as much as if I went to burger king to buy them. The so called junk food is many times the cheapest option. These fucks just want to kill off the poor with taxes

[–] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The ones you make at home will undoubtedly be healther in a lot of ways than the BK ones though.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah but you're missing the point. It costs the same, and I'm wrecked from work and don't have time or energy to cook, so I'll take the fast food every time

[–] Borkingheck@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

How is BK cheaper, they are so expensive? It's like 5.99 for a whopper. Or is this something like feeding your family the 280 calories saver burger which is £1.50?

[–] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ok, but that's still a personal choice, you could cook but chose not to. If you gain weight or health issues from your diet that's not societies fault.

[–] chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

work requires long hours to get by

doesn't have the time to make food from scratch every day

entirely their fault

???

Not to mention the cost of electricity has skyrocketed in recent months, so cooking (esp. using an oven) is massively expensive.

I cook my own stuff from scratch, but that's because I have a job that I can work from home for, and that I can flex hours with. But I have the empathy to recognise that I'm privelaged in that regard.

[–] TheaoneAndOnly27@kbin.social 23 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How about instead of taxing junk food we just start eating the rich.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Eat Tony Blair.

[–] mannycalavera@feddit.uk 4 points 2 years ago

Kinky

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Better also reduce the cost of healthier food, ya knobhead.

[–] butterypowered@feddit.uk 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I’ve thought that for years. Tax the high sugar/fat/alcohol stuff and use 100% of that tax to subsidise fresh fruit and veg.

[–] throw4w4y5@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 years ago

that will just become profit for supermarkets. even if you legislate maximum prices for certain foods, it will still become profit for supermarkets but the quality will be reduced.

[–] tal@kbin.social 19 points 2 years ago

Tony Blair says junk food should be made too expensive for the poor to afford through new sugar and salt taxes to tackle obesity

You're on an island surrounded by salt water, Tony. If people want salt, they're gonna get salt.

[–] Guntrigger@feddit.ch 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Who knew Tony Blair and Jamie Oliver had so much in common. Maybe Jamie Oliver is a secret war criminal.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 4 points 2 years ago

He uses Bosch an awful lot now I think about it. 🤔

[–] Neato@kbin.social 12 points 2 years ago

Just another way to rob workers of more time and money and treat them like the serfs the leech class sees them as.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 8 points 2 years ago

Tony Blair: Well if they have no bread, let them eat cake.

[–] donutaud15@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

How about we take these fuckers champagne and shove it up where the sun don't shine?! Seriously how dare they think of more ways to starve people?! Surely if he gives a damn then he should tackle the fact people are struggling to eat and live rather than worry about some so called obesity crisis?!

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

If you want the slightly less sensational version here's the original reporting on what he said: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/blair-calls-for-tax-on-junk-food-times-health-commission-2gd7hhh69

[+] boatsnhos931@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

[removed by mod]

[–] Wage_slave@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Sounds like someone needs a reminder to have his fucking cake cake and shit the fuck up up while eating it too or else it's going to be shoved up his ass.

Rich fuck.

[–] noodle@feddit.uk -2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think this would be more effective than a lot of us lefties would like to admit. "Healthy" food is already affordable, people just don't want to eat it when there are other options.

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