'Right Nutrition, Right Values': The Construction of Food, Youth and Morality in the UK Government 2010-2014

This paper presents a critical discourse analysis, situated within a broad Foucauldian framework, focusing on the construction of food and eating within the context of youth, schools and education, drawing on speeches, documents and public texts produced or sponsored by members of the UK Coalition Government (2010-2014). Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, spoke of the "clear moral purpose" (June 2011) of the education reform agenda, one key policy of which was the provision of free school meals for all infant school pupils from September 2014. Gove has said of this policy that "the reason that is so important is they won't just get the right nutrition, they will get the right values" (October 2013). The analysis draws on such statements, and other speeches, policy documents and public availably texts to delineate six discourses. These are the discourses of: School (Attainment and Community); Health; Party Political Identity; "Manners Maketh Man"; Economics; and "Good Parent/ Bad Parent". Within these, two overarching themes emerge: a tension between neoliberalism and liberal paternalism, and a link between meals and morality.