The politics of food

As BSE began to hit the headlines in 1990, agriculture minister John Selwyn Gummer famously fed his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a beefburger, to prove how safe beef was. Sue Harrison, director of catering at the House of Commons, did not try the same trick. She's still working, but Gummer has long been out of the political spotlight. "We didn't have beefburgers on our menus then, and don't have them now," she says sternly.

That's not to say her catering decisions duck the headlines. By 1996, the European Commission had announced a worldwide export ban on all British beef, and McDonald's had stopped using it. But Harrison continued to serve prime quality forequarter British beef in the House of Commons. Her decisions fell under media scrutiny, and TV crews filmed delivery trucks entering Westminster to show MPs still ate British beef.

"With the BSE crisis, it was those people buying the cheap cuts of meat who were the most vulnerable. We weren't buying any at-risk products," she explains.

For more than 10 years Harrison has been catering for our 659 elected representatives. During that time, concern about food and its origins has multiplied. New food legislation seems to be passed almost every day. In the political hothouse of Westminster, Harrison has to be aware of new laws and concerns. As she whisks me around her empire of more than 30 bars and restaurants, she describes some memorable moments from her career.

She remembers, for instance, when then agriculture minister William Waldegrave came a cropper in the early 1990s. He'd revealed that calves from his family farm ended up in Continental veal crates that had recently been made illegal in Britain. Harrison had, however, kept abreast of the new law and ensured that only open house-reared veal was served at the House of Commons.

At the moment she's keeping an eye on the GM debate. It's been in danger of slipping off the political radar, but is about to flare up again. The results of three-year GM crop field trials are due out in July. Tony Blair is hoping to soothe widespread anxiety over the safety of GM crops and pave the way for their commercialisation in the UK.

But in a recent interview, environment minister Michael Meacher opposed Blair's campaign to promote GM technology, saying GM crops were unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Harrison's position is characteristically pragmatic. "Wherever it is known, we would seek to avoid GM foods, even though the Government's stance is that there is no health risk. But my decision is based on feedback from customers," she says.

Certainly Harrison has to take political decisions on board, but she makes the decisions based on her own no-nonsense common sense. For instance, the catering select committee, a group of nine MPs who sit every month, pass opinions on to her, but she makes the operational decisions. A request for the House to support the struggling banana farmers of our ex-colonies, St Lucia, St Vincent, Dominica, and Grenada, is typical of food-related issues passed on to her. She'll support these farmers whenever possible.

Harrison says it's easy not to let personal politics intervene, because she doesn't have any. She hasn't owned a television for more than 30 years, and wouldn't have time to watch it anyway, with long working hours and commuting from Buckinghamshire.

This healthy neutrality has served her well. What attracted her to the post was the chance to manage a very large catering operation in need of modernisation. The fact that it's a fascinating place to work was a bonus.

However, she dislikes excessive pontificating. Shortly after taking up her position she was involved in a discussion as to how she should be correctly addressed as the head of a committee. It was decided the proper term was "chair". "I will not be referred to as a piece of furniture," came her reply.

Changing times

Sue Harrison's biggest challenge now is to adapt to the new working hours introduced in January. MPs no longer start work at 2.30pm after a hearty lunch and a bottle or two of wine, but business now starts at 11.30am from Tuesday to Thursday, running right through lunch. On Friday, sittings start at 9.30am and run to 2.30pm, with only Monday retaining its 2.30pm kick-off. MPs are expected to grab a sandwich when they can instead of enjoying a sit-down lunch.

The new working times were introduced to make Parliament more family-friendly, but are having a detrimental effect on takings in the restaurants, which are reportedly 30-40% down. One solution could be to open the restaurants and bars to the general public for the first time, and perhaps combine that with evening guided tours. The cost of operating the House of Commons refreshment department is subsidised to the tune of £5.7m a year, according to the latest published figures for the financial year 2002. Opening the House to the public could see the subsidy, which covers parliamentary catering wages and administration costs, increased considerably.

There is a commercial slant to Harrison's operation, however. It takes in banqueting, souvenirs and bars for MPs and guests, and she is expected to deliver an overall 5% surplus from her trading income, which goes back into subsidising the catering. In 2002, the department reported a net trading surplus of £192,000, just short of the £200,000 target.

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