Marianne sighs and says “Donna” in the same weary tone I used to use when my daughter was being a moron.
“The treat ration is not being reduced. There are a number of factors, as you well know, in the creation of the ration amounts and one—just one—of those factors is nutrition. If you had it your way, we’d all be eating hemp seeds and fourteen portions of raw vegetables a day. The allowance for crisps, sweets, alcohol and cake, fun things with caloric but no nutritional value that help make a day that little bit cheerier, has value in preventing starvation and keeping people happy. Do you want people to be sad, Donna?”
Donna splutters indignantly. “I want people to be healthy, and there’s no reason for so many resources to be used for making cake.”
“Well the board and I disagree with you, so you’ll just have to lump it,” Marianne snaps as I make a mental note to stay on her good side.
“We need a new fucking dietitian,” Marianne mutters before calling the meeting back to order. It’s odd being on this side of the curtain of the rationing program. I remember when my daughter and I collected our rationing books from the local police station. Bright blue, hastily printed in Gateshead, they looked so old-fashioned it was hard to believe we were in the twenty-first century. From January 24, 2026, the United Kingdom officially had a rationing program for the first time since July 4, 1954. In some ways the rationing system replicated the old system, from the Second World War, and in others it had to be wildly different. I think if you gave every person in the UK a basket of fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and bread now, they’d starve. Our ration books allow us to buy an amount of food each week, which can include processed food like soups and ready meals but must have a mix of carbs, protein, vegetables and fruits. We all get a small allotment of meat and fish unless you’re vegetarian, and everyone gets some eggs and dairy. The vegans went nuts over the lack of opt-out over eggs or dairy but the government made statements about vegan replacements “not being easily available in the UK.” There was a massive marketing campaign to make sure the population understood why we needed rationing and how the allowances had been calculated. It was thought, rightly, that transparency would reduce the risk of anger and unrest. To be honest, I think people were just relieved to have a system in place. Panic buying had set in back in December and the shortages were worrying.
And of course, we all have a treat ration, or “Additional Caloric Allowance,” to give it its technical name. We get to buy some junk each week. It makes life a bit easier when you have one of those days and you just think, “Somebody pass me the fucking chocolate.” People like Donna are outraged and there was a lot of “Millennial snowflakes can’t do without sweets even in a time of national crisis!”
I remember an interview the prime minister did just before rationing started. She talked about the “blitz spirit” and how the civil service was thankfully an institutional hoarder, so lots of the information about rationing during and after the Second World War was looked at and used as a starting point. The government of 1946 knew quite a bit about keeping a population alive after all. There was an awful bit of that interview when the interviewer asked the prime minister, “How do you know you have enough food for the population? How could you possibly calculate that?” and her face contorted slightly and she replied, “Well, unfortunately the population keeps reducing. Our birth rate has plummeted and as, without a vaccine, men are still succumbing to the Plague, we have planned on the basis of the population staying stable, which it almost certainly won’t.”
We would have enough food because people kept dying. It was one of the grimmer public pronouncements of the Plague.
“Okay, let’s run through the other updates quickly.” Marianne’s clear voice quickly commands the room of women and she rattles through the things on her list.
“We’ve had a request from a number of GPs for an increase in the ration allowance for female electricians and garbage truck operators. Unless anyone objects, we will approve the calorie increases set out in the report.” A murmur of approval.