Brits must be frankly told by NHS doctors to have self-control and exercise — or obesity will kill you
The Royal College of Physicians wants to pretend obesity is a disease whose sufferers are helpless victims of their genes
You fat-heads
WE fear for the sanity of the nanny-state health zealots.
The NHS’s own website says obesity is a condition “generally caused by eating too much and moving too little”.
Yet the Royal College of Physicians wants to pretend it’s a disease whose sufferers are helpless victims of their genes, or of a cruel society forcing fast food down them and encouraging idleness.
A few may have genes that do them no favours. Most of us know we could lose weight if we tried. What is our motivation if doctors say none of it is our fault?
The answer is not some mad war on the truth, or the conveniences, pleasures and technological advances of modern life.
Like the absurdity of calorie limits in restaurants. Or a chocolate tax. Or making driving so unpleasant via new tolls or speed bumps that we are forced to trudge miles to work in all weathers.
That hits everyone, even the slimmest.
The focus should be on a relentless education campaign informing people what’s in their food and how many calories a day they should aim at.
And that without some self-control and a little exercise, obesity will kill them.
Rental rip-off
HOW can working people make ends meet if more than half their take-home pay is swallowed by rent
That is the miserable plight of 500,000 households, a direct result of the shortage of properties caused by a population explosion and an abject failure to build.
The Government talks a good game — and has lifted the borrowing cap for councils to fund development.
But we are sick of urging them to sort this out.
They appear to lack the urgency or energy, or the courage to slash planning red tape and take on NIMBY residents.
They MUST increase the supply by funding new affordable social housing, liberating renters from the greediest private landlords. They MUST fulfil on their pledge to build 300,000 homes a year young people can buy.
Let’s start in boarded-up town centres.
Saj’s surrender
SAJID Javid’s loss of bottle over the Government’s post-Brexit immigration strategy is truly disheartening.
How can he pretend to be “taking back control” when anyone, from anywhere, would still be able to come to the UK until at least 2025 even with no job offer? No one is fooled, Home Secretary.
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You cannot talk tough while buckling to the pressure from big business for yet more cheap foreign labour. The Brexit vote, among its other motivations, was plainly a demand to end that.
The think tank Migration Watch says immigration is sure to rise under Mr Javid’s 160-page blueprint, making it “the longest suicide note” in Tory history.
It’s hard to argue with that.