Pointless bossiness
SALFORD Council wants to ban fish and chip and other fast-food outlets from selling "junk" food to schoolchildren before 5pm in yet another doomed attempt to halt the rise in obesity in young people.
Firstly, fish and chips is not necessarily "junk" food at all.
"We use pure vegetable oil and our fish is as fresh as it gets," one indignant Salford shop owner said.
"Fish is really healthy, specially when you compare it with other fast foods such as beefburgers."
And how do you define fast food generally? Do pasties from the baker's count? Or meat pies?
Anyway, as soon as any ban came into place the kids would just spend their lunch money on other stuff: crisps, chocolates, biscuits, sweets, cakes.
In any case fat in food is not the real problem.
It's sugar. The food industry puts sugar into just about everything these days.
Know how many teaspoons are in a can of regular coke? Nine. Should Salford ban sales of fizzy drinks too? It's all a near-perfect example of pointless bossiness.