Capitalism is teeming with contradictions. Every now and then the rabid Tory press comes out with a delightful surprise. Going back about eight years, Murdoch’s Sun, in response to the increasing ghettoisation of Britain’s ethnic minorities, produced a stunning front page with a collage of children’s faces of differing ethnic complexion with the proud headline, We’re All British. Whatever the intention, that single front page probably did more to counteract deeply entrenched racist views in this country than a thousand well-meaning editorials in the progressive press.

Similarly, in response to the injustice of the racist thugs that murdered Steven Lawrence, the Daily Mail published the mug shots of the murderous gang with the banner heading, MURDERERS. They then challenged the thugs to sue them, which of course they dared not do. The result of this defiant action probably played a huge part in getting successful convictions against two of the thugs.

There have been other progressive campaigns over the years in the tabloids, the Daily Mail taking the lead in the campaign against the ubiquitous plastic bag. And now, after mountains of hard scientific evidence about the harmful and addictive nature of sugar, the Daily Mail 9/1/14 has taken the courageous stand to declare, Sugar is the New Tobacco. The implications of this front page headline are enormous, for what the headline and accompanying article implies is that the giant multinational companies that control our food supply are not to be trusted with regulating themselves. Voluntary reductions in sugar content have not been forthcoming despite the years of incriminating research, so now these companies must be forced to reduce the sugar content in processed food by at least 30%.

Unwittingly perhaps, the Daily Mail is highlighting a profound truth: self-regulation of the big corporates, whether it be the big banks and finance corporations, the giant pharmaceuticals or the food, tobacco and drinks mega industries, will never work. Capitalism has proved time and time again that it will never regulate itself. The State, so much derided by the right wing neo-liberal press, must, in the absence of genuine people power, step in to regulate these feral conglomerates. And that of course includes the corporate press itself. And there is the contradiction plain for all to see. One section of global capitalism can see the deadly harm that another unregulated section of capitalism can do, and is impelled to speak out.

One in three British children are now either obese or overweight and the figures are relentlessly on the rise. The entire infrastructure of western capitalism is imperilled by the unrestrained greed of the food industry so that even the Daily Mail, bastion of all things reactionary, is finally forced to make a stand. And for that they are to be congratulated.

A while back, Sporting Polemics blogged on a book by Dr David Kessler, called, The end of Overeating. It was a scary and sobering work. The essence of his research was that so toxic are the salt, fat and sugar combinations in our processed and take-away foods that our brains are being rewired into craving these components. We are literally being addicted, as a drug pusher might try to addict his customers, to levels of sugar way, way beyond safety levels. Obesity and related illnesses are now approaching epidemic levels, outstripping all other diseases as the biggest killer. We and our children are literally being murdered by the food companies in their pursuit of ever increasing profit margins.

Of course we have been here before. It was not so long ago that smoking was considered the norm. It was cool and socially accepted. Slowly but surely though the evidence began to mount as to the deadly and addictive effects of tobacco. The big tobacco companies denied vehemently that their product was harmful even though the evidence was irrefutable. The social mood slowly changed but big tobacco responded by paying countless millions to create a pro-smoking lobby so as to cling on to their highly lucrative markets. Even today, big tobacco is in denial about the cancer forming effects of its product. But they are not stupid, As the western populations turn away from smoking the tobacco industry tries desperately to peddle its drug to the unsuspecting third world. In this it has been hugely successful. Capitalism has no shame. It has no conscience. It only has profit margins.

As for the tobacco giants, so it is for the big sugar producers and the global food corporations they supply. Familiar household names like Tate and Lyle, Kellogg’s and Kraft are in reality carrying out a global policy of deliberate addiction whose final consequences are actually too terrible to contemplate. Whatever its deeper motives, The Daily Mail has taken a principled stand and they, along with the other tabloids, must be encouraged to pursue the matter to a satisfactory conclusion. One headline, no matter how hard-hitting, will not be sufficient. This should signal the start of a global campaign that includes government, media, scientific bodies, trade unions and most importantly, the general populous.

Reclaiming our food industry and making it fit for purpose is an important part of the jigsaw whereby we reclaim our entire economy to make it fit for purpose. I don’t supposed the corporately owned Daily Mail will have anything positive to say on this wider social agenda.