No more meat or plastic? Me too!

MICROPLASTICS, #MeToo and veganism – that’s how I’d sum up the past year – apart from the bubbling cauldron of Brexit, of course. And those three things demonstrate perfectly how quickly things have changed, and perhaps show that we are gradually, slowly, becoming a more caring society.

We’re thinking about things we’ve never thought of before, and I see that as a sign of hope for the future. Yes, of course I know they’ve been important subjects for many years (people have campaigned for ages) but 2018 was the year in which these concerns transformed us as a nation, altered our thinking, modified our behaviour in wider society, in our kitchens and even our bathrooms too.

How many of us, I wonder, sat down to Christmas lunch and faced not a turkey but a Tofurky or a cauliflower Wellington? Apparently one in four households catered for at least one vegan in the family.

A year ago, just admitting you were a vegan would have drawn taunts and titters. As the family vegan you’d have stood out like Rudolph with his luminous nose, for everyone to mock. Now admitting veganism is positively de rigueur – so much so that last week, all of the major foodie supermarkets sold spectacular vegan versions of festive fayre – like Waitrose’s Christmas Nut Loaf Muffins, Sainsbury’s Butternut, Brussel Sprout and Chestnut Pie, or even Aldi’s Beetroot and Brie Roast.

Yes, when so-called downmarket stores such as Aldi and Lidl stock Soy & Quinoa Country Roast, you know veganism has gone mainstream.

Better start learning your vegan alternatives, because next year it’ll probably be mandatory.

Plant-based eating is definitely on the rise in the UK and is no longer a counter-culture, it’s an over-the-counter culture. It’s not a hype or a short-term trend. Watch out, by the way, for Veganuary next week, when we’re all meant to be trying it out for a month.

I’m already a vegetarian. Have been since John Gummer (then agriculture minister) tried to make his daughter eat a burger in front of the cameras to deny the BSE crisis, in 1990. That one event made me heave, and give the heave-ho to eating meat. Thanks, Lord Gummer, for making me think.

Now, even the most stubborn meat eaters are being urged to eat “mindfully” – that’s thinking about where your lamb chop has really come from and how often you should munch carelessly on a bacon sarnie. Not just for the sake of your own health but for the well-being of the planet. The two are inextricably linked. We learnt, for instance, back in October that there’s now definitive evidence that microplastics have entered the human food chain because scientists in Europe, Japan and Russia have found microscopic pieces of plastic in human poo.

What a lovely thought, that the little microbeads we once allowed in our toothpastes, shampoos and facial scrubs have now come full circle, flushed down our bathroom U-bends, out into the oceans, swallowed by fish, eaten by us and dumped in our lavatories all over again. Serves us right, perhaps? By the way, 2018 was the year in which we in the UK outlawed the use of all solid microplastic ingredients in cosmetic products. It came into force on January 9 and was a great first step in a more mindful year, and towards more considerate thinking. As for the #MeToo movement, 2018 saw charges being brought against two big-name accusees, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and film star Kevin Spacey.

A year ago, many of us had no idea what a hashtag campaign was, or even where the hashtag symbol was on our computer keyboard. Now #MeToo is part of our national conversation.

It is extraordinary that it was first tweeted just over a year ago by the Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano, who simply wanted to encourage victims of sexual harassment to raise awareness and tell the world that it was an enormous problem, to remove the stigma and break the silence. In fact, she’d borrowed the phrase from another woman, Tarana Burke, a rape victim who worked with other victims and who had realised that often the simplest form of comfort was someone saying “Me too”.

SO #METOO, first tweeted around noon, was used more than 200,000 times by the end of the day, and retweeted half-a-million times more by the next day. On Facebook, it was used by five million people in the same 24 hours. Tens of thousands of people, including hundreds of celebrities, replied with their own stories of harassment and abuse.

It caused a tidal wave, and while many question its real impact and wonder whether the movement has gone too far, it certainly has created a climate in which behaviour that used to be tolerated is now questioned.

It will be fascinating to see how those two men conduct their defences in a new world where it is no longer acceptable to dismiss harassment as just a bit of fun, or predatory behaviour as red-blooded and macho.

Every year throws up horrendous events, stark headlines and worrisome, weary, gutwrenching sagas such as Brexit (how much longer, O Lord?) but usually there’s a silver lining to the grey clouds of doom.

I think we are learning, through our vegan friends, our social media hashtags and even from the microbeads in human poo, how to become more caring, of ourselves, others and our planet, too.

So 2018 wasn’t such a bad year after all.

CROWDFUNDING is an amazing phenomenon. Now it has created a baby! A couple had IVF treatment, paid for by people they’d never met – and now have a daughter. Marisha Chaplin, 26, and Jon Hibbs, 29, from Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire, met as teenagers when both were having cancer treatment. Marisha’s specialist told her that if she ever wanted to be a mother she should get on with it, as her ovaries were in such poor condition. They started trying for a baby when she was 16 but only had their first child through IVF two years ago – and simply didn’t have the money for a second go. That’s when social media mothers, who knew each other only through a web community for women who had given birth around the same time, raised £2,000.

What a brilliant Christmas gift. FANCY a new “celebrity” cook book?

You won’t believe it... it’s Gerry Adams’s The Negotiator’s Cookbook and apparently was snapped up for thousands of stockings on Christmas morning (not mine – it wouldn’t have even been funny).

Forget Nigella or Delia or Jamie Oliver, this cookery book by the former IRA apologist promises to be “the essential kitchen bible to guide you through the entire festive season”. It boasts tasty recipes including those the

Sinn Fein negotiating team came up with to sustain them through the long days and nights of the peace process.

Apparently, Tony Blair had been reluctant to feed both Republican and Unionist negotiators in 1997 and 1998, so they took matters into their own hands and brought food in that they’d cooked the night before. Hence, two decades later, Gerry Adams has turned them into a cookbook.

I know we are all meant to forgive and forget and move on – and even Prince Charles has shaken hands with him in the spirit of reconciliation – but I rather fall in with Lord Tebbit’s view of Adams’s effort: “I hope he chokes on it!”