Let them eat cake

The chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency compares eating cakes in the office to passive smoking. “If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes,” says Professor Susan Jebb. “OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.” But it is sad to ban birthday boys and girls bringing in cakes. Heaven knows, it is good to find anyone in the office and not at home stuffing themselves with cake all day, out of shot of Zoom. True, cake has become a means of expressing every event and emotion in life. Like stag or hen parties, it has got out of hand. What is the solution – to bar cakes, like cigarettes, from the office? It is bad enough eating a lone sandwich at your desk instead of going to the pub. If we value the freedom of the British we should at least let them eat cake.