Britain | Saving your bacon

Britain’s native farm animals can be rarer than giant pandas

To survive, some must be eaten

Pigs at Washingpool farm in Bridport, Dorset.
Sow lonelyPhotograph: Alamy

BRITAIN’S ONE-PIG policy was a success. In 1955 the government endorsed an “improved bacon pig” to help revive the ailing pork industry. A few breeds competed for the role but the portly Large White, which piles on weight quickly and does well indoors, prevailed. Today, an even-plumper descendant of the Large White feeds industrial pig farms up and down the land.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Saving your bacon”

From the November 25th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

British MPs vote in favour of assisted dying

A monumental social reform is closer to being realised

This illustration depicts Keith Starmer and Rachel Reeves set against a background of UK, US, and Chinese flag elements.

The slow death of a Labour buzzword

And what that says about Britain’s place in the world



Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is

At last. Britons had been wondering what those 34m people who are not men might be

Can potholes fuel populism?

A new paper looks at one explanation for the rise of Reform UK

Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks? 

How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party