At least we are not in America, where the poor people are subjected to months and months of TV battles, briefings and pollsters endlessly second guessing the outcome, but we will have to endure a short period of endless backstabbing and generally poor behaviour, I suspect, from the people that we elect to represent us in HM Government.
For us, this is a key moment in the public sector. The current situation is not sustainable, we have had years of standstill, kicking food policy into the long-grass and, of course, wasted national food strategies. In addition, others that have wasted our time and layered more bureaucracy upon us all. Local government has been underfunded and those of us at the frontline have had to do more with less for way too long.
Perhaps this general election really will bring about change. Now is a great opportunity for you to ask those that wish to represent you, what they are actually going to do in regard to public food. Ask them how they will fund school meals, meals on wheels, care catering and, of course, hospital food.
I think that we, as a nation, and especially public sector caterers, are fed up in general with the unprofessional, the power hungry, the self-serving and career-minded politicians and we want change.
We need politicians in power who actually understand the value of a sustainable public food service - and I mean that in every sense of the word ‘sustainable’.
We all need to use our votes to put into office candidates who will put public food on their agenda for change. Politicians need to understand the effect that being a third-nation state has on British food, our farming communities, our supply chains and, most of all, on our ability to deliver the goods and services we are tasked with providing.
So let’s all do our homework before casting our votes. Let’s try to understand who will deliver a better future for the services we have to deliver, and let’s all make a change for good by playing our part in fully transforming the future of public sector catering.
