Inequality Street

 

When I was a child we were brought up not to "accept sweets off strangers" so it's always interesting at Christmas to observe the Royal Family doing the exact opposite.  This isn't a one off and I've often wondered what becomes of these gifts.  I kind of used to imagine that for security reasons MI5 would quietly and swiftly whisk any boxes of sweets or chocolates off to some DSTL laboratory like Porton Down where lots of men in white biohazard suits would spend hours analysing them for traces of novichok, anthrax or cyanide before destroying them in a hospital waste incinerator for good measure... as the position of food taster seems to have gone out of fashion. 

That said apparently President Obama definitely had a food taster so they haven't died out completely (occupational hazard?) but.... then again according to a policy published on the Royal Family website Family members are indeed allowed to have a good chow down on these gifts... so that they can come to learn what Sainsbury's food tastes like as opposed to just Fortum and Mason and M&S.

They are also allowed to give them to charity which raises the spector of some foodbank customer somewhere just keeling over because they've scoffed a box of Quality Street containing a deadly nerve agent... but personally I still reckon they go to a DSTL laboratory.... which would kind of make giving the Royal Family children sweets a next level pointless gesture...