Giles Coren on British soldiers' rations: an exercise in bad taste

I'm not one for BBC-bashing, but the Today Programme's 08:20 item on new ration packs for soldiers in Afghanistan turned into an exercise in bad taste.

Booking Giles Coren to witter on about the new meal packs probably seemed like a good idea in the planning meeting.

But the reality was just crass. "I've got menu fatigue – from eating in all of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants," trilled Coren when it was suggested that a six-month tour with only seven different meals can drag a bit.

Then he became truly offensive, when Maj Gen Patrick Cordingley observed that frontline morale can be boosted by food parcels from home containing cakes. Said Coren:  "It's just like Test Match Special in Afghanistan- all about getting cakes."

Perhaps Coren was unaware that moments earlier (and reported by Today) the MoD announced a Paratrooper has been killed by an Afghan mine, Britain's 108th fatality in the country. Perhaps he was unaware of the fatality announced yesterday, or of the other countless sacrifices and hardships of thousands of his countrymen in Afghanistan. Perhaps.