The Draconian Labour Welsh Government, in their effort to “fight obesity”, has recently announced potential plans to ban meal deals. The Welsh Government freshly launched a consultation exploring ways they could make the “food environment in Wales healthier” which included an array of proposals to “promote” healthy eating.

Meal Deals, something I’ve used plenty of times, are offers whereby products are cheaper if purchased together. The deal usually includes 1 drink, 1 meal (whether that be a sandwich, sushi, etc) and 1 snack. 

After the consultation, which ended September 2022, the Welsh Retail Consortium wrote to  ministers in frustration to explain how the prices would have a detrimental impact on food producers whilst reducing choice and increasing food prices. Let’s re emphasize that the party which was founded on “fighting for the working class” is aiming to remove meal deals (which saves money) in an already growing cost of living crisis… which will unfortunately have a baneful impression on the working class.

In an interview, Sara Jones, mother of two and head of the consortium, told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, “people like myself, a busy mum of two, are looking for a quick lunch option. I’m not going to over-consume because of those purchasing decisions and by banning those it will lead to restrictions in terms of availability and affordability in terms of the consumer…with inflation running at an 18-year-high it would be regressive and irresponsible to put up costs on this matter with no evidence at this time that it would significantly improve public health.”

And she’s right. Something that’s being overlooked by the oligarchs at the Labour Welsh Government is that meal deals do include healthy foods which without the meal deal are more expensive than unhealthy options! A 2021 study by the Food Foundations Broken Plate A 2021 study by the Food Foundations Broken Plate found that “healthier foods are almost three times more expensive than less healthy foods for the equivalent number of calories.” Meal deals include Salads, Sushi, and you can even buy a water with it. It’s not as if they favour unhealthy options over healthy ones. 

An anonymous Tesco employee wrote to Voice of Wales that Meal Deals are “so popular for working people’s lunches, there’s always a healthy option too!”

Furthermore, after seeing the tremendous backlash, Welsh Government spokesperson stated, “we are considering the next steps on price promotions and locations and no final position has been made following the public consultation. We are not proposing to ban meal deals themselves but to consider whether there should be restrictions on high fat, salt and sugar products, that may be part of the deal.” 

But even if they were to just remove “unhealthy” options from the meal deal, they are still removing people’s ability to choose! Adults should have the right to make their own decisions without the government interfering by charging them more for “unhealthy” meal choices. And to anyone who doesn’t see a problem with this, you seem to be forgetting that we are heading in the direction of eating insects and being rendered unable to drive a car… not only for “sustainability” purposes, but also to encourage more “active modes of transport”. An example of the latter, is a company called “go smarter go active”, which launched their first council-backed pilot scheme in Sunderland with the aim of rewarding people for using more “sustainable” and “active” modes of transport, such as walking, cycling, etc. That is literally a social credit scheme! Once that’s combined with a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) and the eradication of cash, they can force you to partake and punish those who don’t!

You may have noticed I put “unhealthy” in quotation marks when talking about removing so-called ‘unhealthy’ meal options from meal deals. Some of you may remember the Sugar Tax, which applied a tax to drinks and foods containing a lot of sugar, while drinks that contained the carcinogenic Sweetener remained much cheaper. I would much rather a natural substance than an artificial substance with a direct correlation to cancer. They are deciding what is healthy and what isn’t and they aren’t always correct in their assessment.

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