Star comment: Subsidies the way to change our eating habits?

A report by experts based in the West Midlands has found cheaper veg would increase the amount we eat by 15 per cent. There’s no surprise in that. It’s a basic concept of supply and demand, the kind of thing many of us learned in A-level economics. Make items cheaper and we will be more inclined to buy it.

Mention the word subsidy and people tend to get worked up. Any minister taking action would inevitably stand accused of turning Britain into a nanny state. The truth is we are already there. We tax cigarettes to discourage people to buy them and even hide them in shop cupboards; we tax sugary drinks because they are bad for us; add duty to petrol because driving is bad for the environment.

In many ways, a subsidy on fruit and veg would be the most sensible step yet. We have established fruit and veg is good for us – and carrots really do help us see in the dark. Any subsidy to help ease the fixed costs associated with producing it would arguably be far outweighed by money spent on NHS services linked to obesity.

And in a region where there are many fruit and veg producers, the step would also give our farmers a real boost too.

Of course state intervention can only go so far.

Our culture has got used to convenience – of packaged, processed food.

A hop over the Channel to France and you will find markets with an abundance of loose fruit, and plenty of people buying it. Many Brits have lost that connection between what we eat and where it comes from.

Regain that and our eating habits may improve.

It sounds like a perfect storm is brewing.

Amid stories of 13-hour delays in handovers, ambulances from the West Midlands are being moved to Shropshire to alleviate the crisis.

This, in turn, is certain to have an impact on services in the urban part of our region.

Meanwhile, with services under pressure like never before, West Midland Ambulance Service is faced with making cuts of almost £9 million.

Nobody would argue that all NHS departments should be well run. But cutting when a service is in crisis is just wrong.

The impression given is that our beloved NHS is more than creaking around the edges.

Paramedics on the front line and the back-up team of 999 call handlers do a magnificent job in the most difficult of circumstances. It is about time they were given the tools to do the job properly.