One of my least favourite Government Ministers (with Ed Balls coming a very distant last) is Dawn Primarolo. I cannot abide her constant attempts to lecture people about how much and what they should eat; how much and whether they should drink and other various attempts to interfere into how people live their lives. She is the embodiment of the puritanical and nannying nature of this Government – totally unprepared to trust people to make their own decisions over their own lives. Her puritanical brother in arms on television is Jamie Oliver and he is becoming increasingly infuriating.
His latest effort is ‘Oliver’s Ministry’, in which he travels to the North in a stunningly patronising attempt to convert the North to his ways of basil and guacamole. It doesn’t seem to cross Oliver’s mind that the people he meets might not want to be lectured about how they should eat and how they should behave by this well meaning mockney. I have no objection to people being provided with education about healthy living or healthy eating and making up their own minds about how to live their own lives. What I do object to is a gross caricature of the North being used for the sake of “good television.” I object to Jamie Oliver’s vaguely Victorian attempt to spread a new kind of morality and virtue under the new God of health fascism.
Doubtless, this new series will earn him a fortune in book sales and new advertising revenue in the South of England. However, I cannot see the man who single-handedly ruined Toploader’s career gaining any traction in the North of England. He should remember that Sainsburys sales actually nosedived in the North and in Scotland when he started appearing in his toe curling adverts for the supermarket chain. Infact, he is more likely to find people from the North telling him where to stick his well meaning, patronising advice.
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Personally, I favour an explicitly Victorian approach to this issue. Wholesome school dinners for all children and compulsory cooking classes in school. If local authorities have problems getting their current dinner ladies to go on cooking courses, then fire them.
I am truly glad that Nanny Hewitt has not been brought back.Her voice & patronising style drive me to distraction
Dave – I completely disagree (surprising, as we so often do agree!) Jamie Oliver’s style may not be to everyone’s taste, but I accidentally watched this last night and I thought it was absolutely the kind of thing that should be encouraged.
He is in a position to lead campaigns like this. He is hugely passionate about the benefits of good food. His charity does an enormous amount to teach, inspire, encourage and nudge us into eating well. The way that he set up this particular programme is perfect – he teaches some people, they then go and teach some more, who then go and teach more. Each person has to make a commitment to learn and then to teach.
It’s active citizenship, it’s active society-building, it’s not government-led… It’s an active intervention at the beginning, but it’s about using society’s own bonds to do good – what’s not to like?
Sir, I agree with you on many things but having watched you attempt to wash down a pie and mash dinner with a cranberry juice while in Birmingham, I have decided I would rather have Jamie Oliver advising me on culinary matters.
I don’t object to Jamie Oliver personally, but the fact that he chose to go north to spread the gospel of good eating is a tired cliche and totally overlooks the numerous places in the South where diet is an issue – but I suspect that wouldn’t fit the narrative Oliver’s Ministry has in mind…