Keir Starmer’s New Year message urges unity, while public calls for a Bank Holiday to honour WWII heroes and NHS data show lack of fresh produce consumption and cost of living is contributing to rising health issues
Holiday fit for heroes
The Second World War generation was the very best of us. So Keir Starmer is right in his New Year message to express hope the nation will come together to commemorate victory over the Nazis 80 years ago. With Tory and Reform UK leaders preaching division and occasionally hate, it is refreshing to hear a patriotic Prime Minister championing what unites rather than divides us.
It is in that spirit that we urge him to listen to public opinion and announce a Bank Holiday after a Daily Mirror poll found 73% of the very people he wants to hold street parties believe a special day should be set aside.
Politicians and the Royal Family holding celebrations without mass participation would be a mistake when it was the huge sacrifices made by courageous ordinary men and women 80 years ago that helped win the war.
Sell healthier
With healthy food costing more than processed grub and poor diets being linked to a surge in hospitalisations, both the NHS and taxpayers are paying the price.
New NHS data shows a dramatic rise in people being diagnosed with anaemia, which is caused by a lack of iron and vitamin B. Ultra processed food also fuels problems such as heart disease and morbid obesity. Yet fresh vegetables, fruit, fish and meat cost more than ready meals at a time when household budgets are tight and families are putting price and convenience ahead of health.
No simple solution exists, and while the government wants us to take more personal responsibility, it must also force manufacturers to sell healthier food instead of letting producers profit at the cost of the NHS.
Year’s to you
Happy New Year and may all your dreams come true in 2025 – and resolutions survive until tomorrow at least. As much as we ring out the old and ring in the new, most of us happily revert to who and where we were. Let 2025 be a good one.