Goodbye Mr Chips: Jamie Oliver’s Integrated Eating Policy
JAMIE Oliver’s latest “pukka plan” is profiled in the Sun. A clue to what we can expect comes in the headline: “Call me Jamie 0-level.”
Jamie is in full political bent. Tony Blair’s administration did not just spawn weapons of mass destruction, Leo Blair and a spiritual reawakening among Cliff Richard fans. It coincided with the rise of Jamie Oliver.
Oliver met with Tony, and you can hear the former leader’s influence in Jamie’s outline for the future of the country.
As Oliver tells readers: “I always knew School Dinners would take ten years to come to fruition so it doesn’t bother me – I know it will come good.”
What doesn’t bother Jamie is that many children don’t like school dinners all that much, and prefer to gain sustenance form outside catering facilities.
But it is the ten year plan that stands out. Readers may recall Tony’s own ten-year plan for an integrated transport policy. That began in 1997 and comes to fruition on December 31 this year when Reading station gets a new replacement bus service to Newbury and the Wiltshire hinterlands.
Lifted by this success, Oliver is moving into education. Or education, education, education – a starter, main and pudding of a policy.
Oliver thinks a class talking about “life skills, common sense and cooking” should be in the syllabus.
“I’m concerned if we don’t get the classroom stuff done as well as the school dinners we will be f***** in 20 years time – just like America is now – a health nightmare. We are on the cusp of an epidemic, it really is that serious.”
With a nod to William Hague, Jamie says “it should be about common sense”.
Jamie is cultivating cross-party support. “Gordon, please,” says Jamie, “you know it makes sense.”
The doom-mongers at LibDem headquarters say that since Jamie started his School Dinners campaign around 400,000 children have shunned the service. Can they be brought on message?
For now, Jamie feels “good about what I did”.
Jamie says he went to Soweto, to an orphanage for Aids children. It was “incredibly emotional”. Using carrot, celery, mince meat and onions, a woman made a stew better than any Jamie has witnessed being made in England in two years.
The massage is clear: we should eat like they do in Soweto. Choice is off. If it’s not on the menu, we don’t do it. End of.
And so to the Jamie O-level. Take a dash of history, a knob of geography, a pinch of salt and a spritz of something special.
Et voila! A vision…
Posted: 10th, September 2007 | In: Celebrities Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
