Organiser's description (via the Centre for Food Policy):
In 2024, Dr Dolly van Tulleken and Henry Dimbleby interviewed 20 prime ministers, health secretaries and other senior politicians from the last 30 years to find out why consecutive UK governments have failed to tackle obesity and improve food-related health. Interviewees included politicians from across the political spectrum from Sir Tony Blair, Patricia Hewitt and Sadiq Khan to Boris Johnson, Lord David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt. They found that, despite government proposing almost 700 obesity policies for England since the early 1990s, policies have not been given the chance to work because the politics are so fraught. During this Food Thinkers webinar, Dr Dolly van Tulleken will share the results of their recently published report Nourishing Britain: A Political Manual for Improving the Nation’s Health. Hear how these failures to improve the nation’s diet resulted from issues related to a fear of nanny state accusations, industry influence, competing priorities, and difficulty intervening on such a large and complex issue. The past politicians were brimming with optimism, ideas and advice for future governments. Tune in to hear the four key ingredients for future success.
The talk will be followed by an online Q&A session.
Dr Dolly van Tulleken is a policy consultant and Visiting Researcher at Cambridge University's MRC Epidemiology Unit where she completed a PhD examining UK government obesity policy. Dolly co-founded 50:50 Parliament's cross-party #AskHerToStand campaign which helps women in the UK get selected and elected. She is Vice President of ex-offenders employment charity Tempus Novo and an ambassador of military veterans charity Forward Assist.
