New entry 1 Will Cavendish director of health and wellbeing, dept of Health
The food and drink industry has taken the rap for the obesity epidemic plaguing this country. Now Cavendish is promising a more holistic approach. Honest.
see right???
New entry 2 Alistair Darling Chancellor of the Excheque
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He can't control rising food prices. He also has no say over interest rates. What he does determine is public spending and tax. And with fuel duty driving hauliers to their knees, and the whole country feeling the effects of sharply rising energy costs, he has a fine balance to tread between boosting confidence, preventing climate change and supporting the depleted public coffers. No pressure, then.
Last year: 2 3 Deirdre Hutton Chair Food Standards Agency
The FSA has wielded extraordinary power over the industry, partly because of the mixed messages and confusion over remits between the FSA and the Department of Health. With a new director of health and wellbeing (see right), and Hutton's appointment of food veteran Tim Smith as CEO, the industry is hoping to see greater clarity and greater understanding.
New entry 4 Jamie Oliver Celebrity chef and Sainsbury's 'ambassador'
This was the year of the chicken for Jamie. With his celebrity chef mates Gordon and Hugh, he took on battery farming. The effect? A shortage of free-range birds.
New entry 5 Sean Poulter Daily Mail consumer affairs correspondent
Prolific, paranoid and pugilistic, no journalist sums up the Mail's campaining spirit more than Poulter, even when misguided and wrong.
New entry 6 John Fingleton CEO, Office of Fair Trading
The pen hadn't even been sheathed on the Competition Commission's two-year report (see below). Only a day earlier he had paid out £100,000 to Morrisons after falsely accusing it of price fixing in the dairy scandal.
Undeterred, SWAT teams from the OFT raided retailers and brands amid new allegations of price fixing last month. Expect more to come as Fingleton pursues his populist agenda.
New entry 7 Dawn Primarolo Health minister the department of health
Primarolo is a bit like her draconian plans for tobacco displays: "out of sight, out of mind" and destined to be ineffective, but capable of causing quite a lot of heartache.
Last year: 6 8 Peter Kendall President NFU
Kendall's unrelenting lobbying of the government and retailers continues to earn respect. When the Chancellor met with retail leaders this month, he, too, was invited.
Last year: 8 9 Tony Woodley General secretary T&G
Representing more than 100,000 members in food retail, processing, horticulture, tobacco and brewing. M&S and Cadbury are the latest companies to feel the heat of a more confident union.
Last year: 1 10 Peter Freeman Chairman, Competition Commission
His report is expected to change little, but appointing an ombudsman, writing the new grocery code of conduct and with possible appeals, it's not over yet.top influencer Dr Will Cavendish
ou may never have heard of Dr Will Cavendish. But you soon will. He's the new director of health and wellbeing at the Department of Health, and having written the government's new obesity strategy at the personal behest of Gordon Brown just before Christmas -
a document that led to the delay of the FSA's saturated fat report - he's now charged with putting the new £75m social marketing strategy into practice.
Cavendish has far-reaching responsibility. Obesity and alcohol. Food nutrition, food labelling, food advertising. Children's health. Breastfeeding. Workplace health. Catering. And since he's likely to stay a little longer in this senior civil servant position than the ministers at the DH, who come and go on an annual basis, he is not driven by short-termism and is committed to seeing through long-term change.
He also has history as a strategist of some note. As the director of strategy at the NHS, his most recent job was putting together a reform programme that has been described as the most comprehensive ever, making judicious cuts, dealing with deficits, introducing modern payment systems and realistic tariffs, ensuring better commissioning and greater consumer choice.
Of course, there have been holistic social marketing programmes before. The last White Paper, Choosing Health, published in 2004, was pilloried by the Public Accounts Committee as muddled and ineffective. Where Cavendish's programme is expected to differ is in engaging all Whitehall departments, including transport and local authorities, to consider obesity in planning and objective setting, but also putting in place strong leadership teams, clarifying and curtailing the extent of the FSA's responsibilities and introducing delivery systems and evidence-based monitoring programmes.
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