Call to ban eating on local public transport

[DPWH]

This speculative idea brought to you by someone who styles themself as "chief medical officer":

https://www.theguardian.com/society...must-be-put-ahead-of-profits-says-chief-medic

The government should put children’s health before companies’ profits, says the outgoing chief medical officer in a hard-hitting report calling for tough action against junk food, including a ban on eating and drinking on public transport, to tackle obesity.

Snacking on junk is common. Davies said: “It is now pretty normal to see people eating as they walk up the street. A couple of decades ago, it wasn’t....

 

[MarlowDonkey]

This speculative idea brought to you by someone who styles themself as "chief medical officer":

I think she can be accused of not researching basic facts. The only VAT on food is on anything classified as a meal, so it won't make "healthy" food any cheaper to apply VAT to "unhealthy" food.

 

[yorkie]

It's a big problem but banning people eating on public transport isn't the solution.

It's not uncommon to see kids eating chocolate bars for their breakfast on their way to school, but that doesn't mean the solution is to ban anyone from eating food while walking.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's a big problem but banning people eating on public transport isn't the solution.

I think a ban on hot food on trains would be good except in restaurant cars where provided, though not for the reason she suggests it, just because eating food that stinks is antisocial and there's plenty of food options that aren't. I remember the old "don't eat cooked food on trains" (that actual wording, so you'd be stuffed with your roast ham sandwich ) posters on 1980s Merseyrail.

As to her reasoning, she's just another nasty neo-puritan. Tax specific foods that are creating cost for the NHS to cover that cost (the equivalent of increased health insurance costs for fat people somewhere like the US), and leave it at that. If adults want to eat themselves to death, their problem. People need to accept the consequences of their own decisions. For children, simply consider a poor diet resulting in obesity as abuse and prosecute accordingly - it would be with a pet.

 

[Karl]

Give me a bag of Bombay Mix! Nobody's taking them off me

 

[hexagon789]

This speculative idea brought to you by someone who styles themself as "chief medical officer":

https://www.theguardian.com/society...must-be-put-ahead-of-profits-says-chief-medic

Do these people actually think their ideas through? For a start it's not going to work as intended and for second it's unworkable anyway.

It's not reasonable to ban everyone from eating on public transport purely because certain persons don't make healthy dietary decisions.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do these people actually think their ideas through? For a start it's not going to work as intended and for second it's unworkable anyway.

It's not reasonable to ban everyone from eating on public transport purely because certain persons don't make healthy dietary decisions.

Though a ban is possible - Metrolink doesn't permit eating or drinking (even water) on trams.

 

[PeterC]

One reason for using rail in particular for a journey that cuts across meal times is that you can eat without a break in the journey.

 

[hexagon789]

Though a ban is possible - Metrolink doesn't permit eating or drinking (even water) on trams.

I'd love someone to test that in court, I don't think that is enforceable particularly on the water front during a heatwave, I'm sure a few legal actions over people paying out with dehydration would change Metrolinks mind on that. And what about diabetics or people feeding babies?

I don't consider this a reasonable ban at all.

 

[pdeaves]

Though a ban is possible - Metrolink doesn't permit eating or drinking (even water) on trams.

In (slight) mitigation, Metrolink journeys tend to be reasonably short. Imagine doing Plymouth-Edinburgh entirely 'nil by mouth', for example. I wonder if the chief medical officer would consider a ban on unhealthy foods in private transport too. Or perhaps, a ban on motorised private transport on the basis that everyone including the obese needs to exercise more.

Hopefully the original statement turns out to be nothing more than a sound-bite (no pun intended).

 

[Bletchleyite]

Hopefully the original statement turns out to be nothing more than a sound-bite (no pun intended).

The original statement was proposing a ban on food and drink on city public transport where it's pretty much exclusively snacking - in a typical politician's way it then goes on about London. So we're talking things equivalent to Metrolink. She didn't propose banning it on train journeys where you would typically need a meal along the way. This would also save on cleaning costs, FWIW (that's why Metrolink and many bus companies do it).

The Press seem to have omitted "city" presumably to get people aboard the outrage bus (where a full three-course meal is no doubt served).

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd love someone to test that in court, I don't think that is enforceable particularly on the water front during a heatwave, I'm sure a few legal actions over people paying out with dehydration would change Metrolinks mind on that. And what about diabetics or people feeding babies?

I don't consider this a reasonable ban at all.

If you can't, in normal health, survive a half hour tram journey without a drink, you are severely dehydrated and need to consider drinking more water during your day generally. We seem to have developed this obsession with carrying around a bottle of water all the time (at least now a refillable one of tap water rather than the waste) that simply didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It is unnecessary.

The rest of it is rather de-minimis (e.g. a diabetic eating a couple of sugar tablets/sweets or a baby being breast-fed) and wouldn't be likely to be prosecuted.

 

[pdeaves]

The original statement was proposing a ban on food and drink on city public transport where it's pretty much exclusively snacking

OK, the way I heard it reported on the radio implied a bigger issue. Journalists trying to make more of a story than was intended, probably.

 

[hexagon789]

If you can't, in normal health, survive a half hour tram journey without a drink, you are severely dehydrated and need to consider drinking more water during your day generally. We seem to have developed this obsession with carrying around a bottle of water all the time (at least now a refillable one of tap water rather than the waste) that simply didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It is unnecessary.

The rest of it is rather de-minimis (e.g. a diabetic eating a couple of sugar tablets/sweets or a baby being breast-fed) and wouldn't be likely to be prosecuted.

The bye-laws also don't seem to say you can't drink water nor eat anything at all:

27.No person, whilst on the system, shall consume or have open for consumption:-
a) Any alcoholic beverage or
b) Food which will soil, disfigure, or destroy the property of TfGM or any other person.

Nothing about water or all types of food

 

[Hadders]

London Underground advises passengers to carry a bottle of water on their services during hot weather.

 

[Terry Tait]

She should be made to realise that Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The bye-laws also don't seem to say you can't drink water nor eat anything at all:

Nothing about water or all types of food

That must have changed, as it also doesn't ban coffee, and that definitely was banned when the system was opened.

 

[Mag_seven]

As with most "bans" the key question is as ever "who enforces it?"

 

[hexagon789]

That must have changed, as it also doesn't ban coffee, and that definitely was banned when the system was opened.

If I'm ever in Manchester I shall take a coffee and some form of hot food on-board as an experiment

 

[trainophile]

Can’t see a thread on this, to my surprise.

BBC News this morning cites a proposal to ban eating and drinking on public transport in a means to control the obesity epidemic, particularly in children.

Personally I have never heard anything so ridiculous, for all sorts of reasons.

Any thoughts?

 

[73001]

Ridiculous. No other word for it. Who's going to enforce it? Obesity stems from a lack of education in the home. You can't pass the buck onto someone else.

 

[trainophile]

Quite. It would certainly hit the Kings Cross to Inverness appeal!

 

[GodAtum]

If you can't, in normal health, survive a half hour tram journey without a drink, you are severely dehydrated and need to consider drinking more water during your day generally. We seem to have developed this obsession with carrying around a bottle of water all the time (at least now a refillable one of tap water rather than the waste) that simply didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It is unnecessary.

The rest of it is rather de-minimis (e.g. a diabetic eating a couple of sugar tablets/sweets or a baby being breast-fed) and wouldn't be likely to be prosecuted.

When I worked up there, I ate my breakfast on tram while commuting to work ... something from Upper Crust or Costa.

 

[PR1Berske]

Silly season non-story.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If I'm ever in Manchester I shall take a coffee and some form of hot food on-board as an experiment

For best effect a venti Starbucks and a Burger King

 

[edwin_m]

Classic example of "something must be done" without thinking through the consequences.

 

[Geezertronic]

Who would enforce the ban? And who determines if there is a valid medical reason for eating something during a journey other than the person (i.e. in the case of a diabetic who needs to eat regularly, why should they put off their travel to accommodate at eating ban)?

 

[woodhouse122]

stupid idea ,I travel a lot on Megabus services from sheffield to Glasgow,london and cardiff ,am i to starve myself for 7 or 8 hours or will the long distance bus operators give us food break stops ,also will train operating companies stop thier refreshment trollies and will shops at train terminals refuse to sell food if it is to be taken on trains

 

[sprunt]

The original statement was proposing a ban on food and drink on city public transport

Was "city" public transport the exact wording, or just local public transport? It implies that a bag of crisps on the bus from one side of Sheffield to the other is forbidden, but the same on the bus from one rural village to the neighbouring village is fine. As others have said, it seems totally unworkable.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It said eating on "local" public transport would be banned while eating on "InterCity" would still be allowed.

OK then... what happens between Wigan and Warrington...?