The best present this Christmas would be for those that govern us, and the food industry, to reform their ways

Stirring together the fruity and aromatic ingredients that will be this year’s mincemeat, I am aware that it also has hidden among its glossy depths an uninvited ingredient. Mincemeat could be a metaphor for the part geo-politics plays in food: the currants, raisins, brown sugar and spices represent the whirl of the global market; the tangy gratings of apple embody the long struggle borne by British orchardists against cheaper imports.