Horse Meat Good News for MPs

Am I too cynical to conclude that the spate of (plate of?) scandals about horse meat and other contamination of processed foods will have MPs patting their tummies? The lobbying firms will now be in overdrive, and instead of the big hitters enjoying the big dinners, the largesse will have to pass lower down the political food chain.

Among those defending themselves will be supermarkets showing that it was nothing to do with their grinding downward pressure on suppliers that has led to corner cutting. Step forward too a crowd of the giants of the food processing world, out to demonstrate how it wasn't anything to do with them, guvnor, they thought the extraordinarily cheap meat they were buying was kosher - bad choice of words - fine then. The inevitable conclusion must surely be the third plea in Scottish law: 'A big boy done it and ran away.'

It will not just be MPs at the trough, either. Their parties (and it will be all the major parties) will have a boost to funding from some of the big food fish, by which I don't mean halibut. Halibut smells better. So the result of the debate will be 'It's a bit of a pity but we are sure it won't happen again. Honest. Delicious foie gras by the way. And the Yquem with the brulee was wonderful.'

My approach to processed food is - by and large - avoid it. Fresh meat needs care too - I try my damndest to buy from sources I trust, which includes a local Aberdeen Angus farmer, top man Henry Rowntree, for a regular delivery of meat that tastes great, is from beasts that enjoyed a good life, has not been up and down the country to save 2p per animal on slaughter fees, has been hung properly, is tender, and is actually at a very good price as the middle man has been cut out. Of course that means I have to cook it and turn it into ragu etc myself, but as cooking is one of life's great joys why would I want someone else to do it (badly) for me? Why would I indeed get someone to charge me for removing a pleasure from my life? I don't hire someone to drink my wine for me and tell me how good it was.