The Great British Vomitorium

Well, his final bite is good. He wants us to think about people who don't have enough to eat rather than, in his words, "what's on the end of our forks". He mentions the Trussell Trust and its foodbanks.

So his 'device' is to build a picture of the excessive "foodiness" of modern Britain and then to bring us down with a thump to uncomfortable thoughts about other people's hunger. A worthy sentiment and probably (hopefully) effective.

Still don't like his 'delivery' style. But that's just personal. Note to self (no pun intended): I'd have been better reading what he had to say rather than listening.

And even then, there is something a bit yukkily smooth about himSelf isn't there. I did read one book by him about a London in which all the people were chimpanzees. Undoubtedly talented but not endearing.
But yes I agree with the sentiment - the last thing we need in this increasingly overweight country is a week (or 10 days even) of over eating and drinking. Not like we are half starved all year and a big blow out is a real treat is it?
One day was plenty for me, and for the first time ever we have no chocolate in the house post xmas. In fact normal diet has been resumed since Boxing Day.

Apart from buying a rather more expensive joint of meat than we usually do, we haven't diverged from our usual diet at all. Can't do feasts. i simply don't find eating a lot at once is enjoyable at all. Ever.

I'm returning home today after 10 days with family, to a completely empty fridge; none of the usual Christmassy left overs to pick on so I shall take this opportunity to start the new year as I mean to go on (!). I will endeavour to eat sensibly and whenI stray from the straight and narrow will just go and look in the mirror and remind myself why I am doing this.......

Gally, have a safe journey home .
Apart from my being the only consumer of mince pies and Christmas cake in our house , nothing very different from the norm has been eaten, really. The supermarket car parks are still full to bursting though, so someone somewhere is spending a fortune on food that may just find itself in the bin after a few days.

Apart from a little bit of extra chocolate, I've not eaten anything special.
Yesterday I used up all my vegetables and made soup and a corned beef hash
which will see me through this week probably.

In our house I often feed large numbers so Christmas is just more of the same really, but I do always seem to have plenty of chocolates around as it's a typical 'thank you for having me' gift. They go out in little dishes around the house and by the time we get to New Year and the hordes have left - so have the chocolates.
We have just set up a food bank in our fairly affluent little town after hearing that locals were travelling elsewhere to get food parcels. Unless it's accompanied by action of some sort I'm not sure what good there is in prompting "uncomfortable thoughts about other people's hunger".

I recently saw hinSELFness in a panel discussion program on tv.

He was quite obnoxious, sneery, patronising and aggressive, so stopped listening.

I agree reading what he has to say might be a better option.

Well, thinking about doing something has to precede doing it, ga. Raising consciousness of a need is always worth doing.

I gave up on Will Self a long time ago [he didn't notice; was too busy rabbiting on in his usual dreary way]. Always one to not use one word when twenty [or more] will do. Get to the end of a paragraph and have to re read it because I've lost the plot of what he's talking about. I may click on the link just to see if he's changed recently, but I think not.

Havnt read the article but would be good if we didnt get caught up in this frenzy of shopping whatever it is for. It seems that people (and A friend of mine confirmed this before christmas) get carried away with what the crowd is doing. The supermarkets are full of people buying for one days food.The supermarkets are open on boxing day so whats the panick.

The shops may have been open on boxing day but not all of them had food because of the factory closures on christmas day. Returning to GB on 27th we were unable to buy ingredients for a meal and were unable to get bread until yesterday.

Petallus That's Will Self well summed up!

I'm unable to listen to himSelf as 'the content is not available for your device' (I'm in America with DS DDiL and DGCs).
But
1. I don't overeat at Christmas or at any time of the year.
2. I nearly always manage to use up left overs.
3. I see nothing wrong in having interesting, appetising food. My memories of meals at home in the fifties are best left undescribed, suffice to say that my mother's lack of interest in food, combined with austerity meant that meals had to be got through rather than enjoyed.
I can still remember when green peppers first became available in the late sixties - and when I discovered garlic, life was never the same again!

I saw the title of this thread and thought it referred to the vomit I have to carefully pick my way through on my way to the station the morning after some or other celebratory occasion. Will Self is decidedly odd, I sometimes think his name should be Self Will.

One thing which has always upset me in the UK, is the fact that young people consider Christmas Eve as the numero uno night to get totally trashed - thus ruining many a family Christmas with hung-over youngsters on Christmas day.

Yes indeed granjura been there and got the t shirt. And then they do it all over again a week later. Yuk. So glad my sons are past that stage.
Mothers day used to suffer as well as it always seemed to be the day after DS2's birthday night out!
Didn't Will Self have a really bad cocaine problem at one stage? I seem to remember his partner... Deborah Orr... writing about it in the Guardian?

Will Self was a heroin addict. May have been a cocaine user as well of course ...

I used to love Christmas Eve as a teen/twenty something..met up with loads of friends in the pub and had a great time. The same gang now meet up for a Christmas get together on the first weekend of December.. 40+ years on!

We do have favourite foods at Christmas ..it's a celebration... we probably do over indulge for a couple of days but hey it's Christmas and it happens once a year!

I do think the media has become a hugely food obsessed ... so many foodie programmes on TV about 'fine dining' etc and a certain amount of food snobbery going on. I quite enjoy watching some shows and I enjoy cooking a special meal occasionally but generally eat a balanced diet of mostly fresh veg!

Yes;I was going to mention that but I wanted to check it out on wikipedia first and it keeps crashing on me. I think someone who indulged in drugs of that kind are a bit two faced if they preach about over indulgence.....

We did have a feast at Christmas. But that followed a month of very abstemious meals during Advent. The money saved goes to Christian Aid.

Crimson maybe he learned a lesson? We all make mistakes in our lives but should that negate our ideas or opinions that grow out of that situation?
I too find him pompous & I find it difficult to empathise with him because of his delivery style!

Can't disagree with a word of that nanaej . Especially the 'pompous' one ....I think if many other people had written it I would be agreeing totally with them.

I actually like his very dry drone - and he makes some excellent points I think. The over-indulgence at Christmas is obscene, isn't it (us included I hasten to add) - followed by the just as ridiculous dieting. If we looked at it from afar, we would be really wondering if we are sane at all, no?

He is brilliant when on Question Time- again, dry as a bone and so to the point. He dares say what so many think, but daren't express. We need more like him, I think.