“Back Away From The Fat Kid! He’s Gonna Blow!!”

Whoops! Looks like Dumb Jon and I were a little too hasty in laughing at the plans for the ‘Fat Police’ recently, to tackle childhood obesity. A top ‘expert’ (and I only use that term because it’s in the report) thinks fat kids pose a very serious problem indeed:

The threat to Britain and the NHS from rising obesity is as grave as that posed by terrorism, a top expert says.

Durham University public health expert Professor David Hunter, who also acts as a government adviser, said ministers should be taking "bold action" now.

I agree. They should be giving this clown his cards right now, and hiring some less excitable ‘experts’.

Professor Hunter said that governments since the 1970s, including the present Labour government, had "tinkered around the edges" of the rising problem of obesity. He said it was possible that the disease it caused could overwhelm the NHS, with some predicting a doubling of the number of people with type II diabetes by 2025.

The solution, he said, was a more direct approach, with less public consultation.

"They have been talking about it for four decades, but that never seems to be enough," he said.

"The government was quick to move for things like ID cards or 42-day detention without trial - now it needs to show similar leadership in public health.

"The threat to our future health is just as significant as the current security threat."

Quite the little dictator, isn’t he? The public aren’t listening to the scare stories, so the public must be made to listen…

Perhaps the reason the public aren’t listening is because so many of the scare stories raised by scientists and public health officials have proven to be based on somewhat questionable data, or made up out of whole cloth, like the ‘alcohol unit measurement’, and the public are therefore less inclined to bow to their ‘wisdom’.

No matter – Professor Hunter has a bandwagon and he’s not afraid to use it:

He said that current work between the Food Standards Agency and food manufacturers and suppliers could go further.

"Lots of the initiatives are under a voluntary agreement - but it has just come to the point where things like these are simply not working."

He said that bigger warning labels, changes in the taxation of "unhealthy" foods, and even the use of compulsory regulations to force manufacturers to cut levels of salt, sugar and fat in their foods could be employed.

It seems C.S. Lewis was right all along…