In a couple of weeks, I’m off for my two weeks in the Spanish sun and quite frankly it can’t come soon enough.

Now I’m a big fan of Spanish cuisine (and Spanish beer and wine) and one of the delights on my trip to the Costas is visiting those lovely tapas restaurants – chorizo in red wine and tiny haricot beans cooked with Serrano ham are among my favourites.

Now I’m a creature of habit and have gone back to the same resort for several years now. And I know before I set foot on my Easyjet flight that one of the restaurants I will be visiting, maybe, twice if I’m lucky, is a typical Brits-abroad place.

Yes, you can get all your home comforts there – full English breakfast, Sunday roast, pie and chips and a pint of Guinness.

You could quite rightly argue that doesn’t really put me in the swing of the Iberian lifestyle I claim to espouse but I have a very particular reason for seeking out the Rope and Anchor in Cala Bona – liver and onions.

When I was a little boy, liver and onions was one of the staple meals of our household and I loved it. But as an adult with a wife who won’t eat offal, it’s very much not on the menu any more which is why I make my annual pilgrimage to the Rope and Anchor.

And why do I mention this? I was looking at the Guardian’s website over the weekend and came across a report about the latest YouGov poll food rankings where the data company asked more than 6,000 people to have their say on 50 savoury British dishes and then ranked them into tiers.

Apparently, the research conclusively revealed what YouGov has described as a ‘distressingly beige chart’ with Yorkshire puddings topping the savoury list. They are followed closely behind by Sunday roasts and fish and chips.

Crumpets were on a par with a full English breakfast and bacon butties while sausage and mash, cottage pie and shepherd’s pie all scored highly.

But what distressed me most was the lowly ranking for liver and onions that could only make it into the so-called ‘crap tier’.

I am shocked and appalled.

And distressingly, some of my other favourite foods were ranked equally badly including steak and kidney pudding (there’s offal again), black pudding and kippers.

Frankly, that survey has just trashed my childhood mealtimes.

And who do we have to blame for this travesty? Young people, that’s who.

According to the report, generational differences in food tastes proved an even bigger factor than differing food tastes between genders.

Younger Britons are less likely to have enjoyed the foods their elders considered dietary staples.

The most noticeable is the enormous 43 percentage point gap between 18 to 24 year olds and those aged 55 and over regarding liver and onion, with just 15 per cent of the former liking it compared to 58 per cent of the latter.

Oh dear, what kind of people have we become? Are we now a nation of pomegranate molasses-swilling, Kalamata-olive nibbling, courgetti-eating snowflakes?

I’m starting a campaign to bring back liver and onions. Who’s with me?

Talking of campaigns, it’s interesting to see Tatton MP Esther McVey fall at the first hurdle in her bid to become leader of the Conservative Party and by default Prime Minister.

What I find even more interesting is she finished last in the first round of voting by Tory MPs with just nine votes. Now assuming she voted for herself, that means just eight other MPs thought she would make a good leader of the country and the party.

At what point did Ms McVey think she had enough support to actually challenge for the leadership, I wonder? You can’t help but think some of her colleagues told her she could count on their support and then gone and voted for someone else.

One wonders if Ms McVey will find the experience somewhat chastening. As they say, every day is a school day and Ms McVey has certainly been taught a lesson.

While we’re on about local Tory politicians, hats off to Eddisbury MP Antoinette Sandbach who was one of 10 Tory rebels who voted against her own party and with a Labour motion aimed at paving the way for the Commons to block a no deal Brexit and introduce a ‘safety valve’ into the process.

But the motion, which was backed by all opposition parties and some Tories, lost by 298 votes to 309.

Takes a certain amount of principle and courage to stand up and be counted like that.

By Guardian columnist The Fly in the Ointment