The strategy for reducing sugar intake is surely brief and straightforward – scrap the inappropriately named “responsibility deal” and reinstate the monitoring and enforcement roles of the Food Standards Agency (“May’s craven sugar U-turn puts children at risk”, Comment). Between 2005 and 2011, when Andrew Lansley relieved it of that role, its effectiveness was demonstrated by an average of 15% reduction in salt intake and with all major companies engaged. There was no public outcry and no apparent drop in sales.
We surely wouldn’t put speed limit regulations into the hands of Porsche and childhood obesity is equally deserving of an independent agency to oversee it. Meanwhile, tax has never been a major deterrent to smokers and is unlikely to be any more effective for sugary drinks. The overriding principle of child welfare is that the needs of the child are paramount – this government strategy has failed them.
Dr John Trounce
Hove
East Sussex
Your editorial on obesity in the young (21 August) was a caricature of the UK food and drink industry, Britain’s largest manufacturing sector which employs nearly 400,000 people. Thanks to food and drink manufacturers, people in Britain today have access to a wider range of safe, nutritious food and drink – at all price points – than ever before. The voluntary efforts of those manufacturers have already seen salt intakes reduced by over 15% and they are now focused on reducing fat and sugar too to ensure consumers can make whichever diet choice is right for them.
Your efforts to draw parallels between smoking and food are wrong and malicious. There is no safe level of tobacco consumption and yet food is the stuff of life, an important part not only of nutrition but also of our culture for thousands of years.
Childhood obesity is a serious public health and public policy challenge. It is best tackled by harnessing the efforts of all those involved including government, parents, schools, and yes, of course the industry too. Industry’s commitment to doing the right thing whether by reformulation, reducing portion sizes or clearer labelling is there for all to see..
Ian Wright CBE
Director General
Food and Drink Federation
London
Answers blowing in the wind…
The picture on page 20 of bloodied five-year old Omran Daqneesh just pulled from the rubble of his home in Aleppo will have shocked and saddened all of your readers last Sunday (World news).
And no doubt most will have felt the same anger as I to read, eight pages further on, “How Britain is cashing in on the Middle East’s hunt for weapons”.
Jamie Doward reported: “The global defence export market in 2015 was worth a fraction under $100bn.” We all know that it is not “defence” but death and destruction that this market serves.
Britain should take a moral stance on the world stage and stop the manufacture and export of weapons of death. Turning to page 41 the “loss-of-employment” argument could be answered by Philip Inman’s article “A serious industrial strategy would do well to take the renewables sector as its starting point”. Our armaments factories could be turned over to provide the solar, wind and storage devices that would provide all the energy we need.
Michael Bassey
Newark
Harness the tides for power
I read with interest Terry Macalister’s article about the need for a breakthrough in electricity storage (“If wind and solar power are cheaper and quicker, do we really need Hinkley Point?”, Business). Britain already has a proved industrial-scale electricity storage system. Indeed, four pumped storage schemes have a larger capacity (2800MW) than will be provided by Hinkley Point. There are 64 pumped storage schemes world-wide and 10 under construction.
Britain has many suitable reservoirs, eg Kielder Water and Ladybower, which could be readily adapted for pumped storage. The UK also has 1650MW of straight hydroelectric power generation. Hydro power is more efficient (95%) than any non-renewable generating method.
Hydro takes about 10 seconds to reach full generation, so is ideal when the wind stops or during TV commercials to fill the gap that base loads that cannot quickly ramp up output.
Britain also has at least four “Hinkley Point” potential tidal generating sites. Swansea Bay will be a demonstrator, although La Rance in France has operated successfully for more than 50 years. More hydroelectric and pumped storage schemes should help to control river flooding, by moderating drainage from hills. While electricity is only about 10% of UK end-use energy, and has been falling due to energy efficiency measures, keeping the lights on is a political imperative.
Britain is not the only country with this dilemma. Other European countries are phasing out fossil fuels and nuclear for carbon-free energy supply. Switzerland’s economy was strangled during the First World War, when its coal supplies were cut off, and began a 20-year programme of hydro-generation installation. By 1939, Swiss electricity was, and still is, 100% renewably powered.
Prof LJS Lesley
Liverpool
Don’t demonise the burkini
Naturally, security is a growing global concern that should be at the forefront of everything else. However, repeatedly targeting Muslim women’s dress code and publicly humiliating them is not the solution.
Created bearing Muslim women in mind, the burkini is an all-in-one convenient waterproof swimsuit with the bonus of a swimming hat. Many non-Muslim women who feel uncomfortable wearing other forms of swimwear have worn this.
A burkini is neither the swimwear equivalent of a burqa nor an Islamic item of clothing. There are no instructions in the Qur’an or Islamic teachings about it. It’s a modern-day innovation that complies with health and safety regulations in a swimming pool. It does not replace the burqa (loose outer coat and head covering), which Muslim women wear on a day-to-day basis.
The best way forward to deal with safety and extremism is to educate and work with communities, so they can become aware of security concerns and co-operate to pave the way for peace and harmony.
Navida Sayed
Address supplied
Labour will pull together
I respectfully disagree with Sadiq Khan on this issue (“We cannot win with Jeremy… so I will vote for Owen Smith”, News) but I do agree that when we are “strong and clear in our convictions, the message will get through to the public”. As for Corbyn not likely to win the next general election, I have immense respect for Sadiq Khan but he is no more a soothsayer than Jeremy Corbyn is able to walk on water. Corbyn didn’t lose the last two general elections. . If I make a prediction of my own here; there is a law that says for every action there is an equal opposite reaction. I expect to see some furious bridge building going on in the Labour party after this leadership election for all our sakes.
Cllr Vaughan Thomas
Norwich City Council
