Excited by finding fairy eggs

One ‘bridge too far’ should have been enough, but it looks to me as if Michael Gove has already embarked on a second one with his new plan to tackle obesity in schools. Despite having been forced to drop his cherished proposal for an ‘English baccalaureate’, the Education Secretary is reported to be preparing to tell young schoolchildren what they are allowed to eat and what they aren’t, and to compel them to take lessons in cookery. The resistance, I predict, will be at least as formidable as that of the teachers and civil servants who sank the baccalaureate project. For without resorting to totalitarian measures, it is almost impossible to get children to eat things they don’t like and to forego things they do like, especially as their parents usually share their unhealthy preferences.

If people imagine that the popularity of television chefs means that the average housewife now spends her evenings drizzling extra virgin olive oil on sundried tomatoes, they are deluded.