The "thick-slice bread" debate

Last week there were a few comments on blogs about the House of Lords debating the use of thick-slice bread and the possibility of doing something about it to tackle obesity.

In fact the "debate" consisted more of a silly Aussie Tory peer that suggested the Government should do something about it and the Government saying that it would be nanny statism gone mad. The phrase "through the looking glass" springs to mind.

Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, I speak as a member of the All-Party Group on Obesity. Why is it that in central London you can hardly find a thinly-sliced or medium-sliced loaf of bread to buy, and any sandwich you buy in any supermarket is now made with thick bread? While the House of Lords continues to use medium-sliced—and very nice—bread in its sandwiches, even the House of Commons has moved to thick bread. Surely at a time when we want to reduce people's consumption, there should be more pressure from the Food Standards Agency, or one of the many departments the Minister speaks about, to take us back to normal-sized bread instead of these super-sized sandwiches.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: My Lords, that is an interesting and important point, but it is not really a matter for the Government. We would be accused of being a nanny state if the Government started to pronounce on these issues.

I feel ashamed thatr a Tory would suggest such things, and equally sad that it was the Government in the Lords that had to point out how stupid it was.