/Just/ what the nation needs - a 'Minister for Fitness'
Caroline Flint, the admittedly easy on the eye Minister for Public Health, has been tasked with getting us all fitter ahead of the 2012 Olympics. Detail here.
Quite why the Olympics represents a marker in the road is open to question - are we supposed to be competing in this wretched steroid fest, or is it so only the beautiful people will show up in shots of the crowd?
I've long been intrigued by the US and British approaches to obesity, with it deemed OK to hector the hefty in these parts, whereas Americans of size lobby furiously and have the delightfully named National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. I'm not making this up - google it for proof.
The fact that we have healthcare funded by taxation gives the State the 'right' to lecture us on what we should or should not do with our bodies on public interest grounds, whereas the picture on the other side of the Pond is rather different. As it stands, discrimination against the obese is already being portrayed (in some quarters) as being as unacceptable as that based on race, gender and sexual orientation, but there is no sign of that here as yet, and for the reason posited earlier, I suspect it will not come to pass any time soon.
Full disclosure time - I have a BMI of 22.7, which puts in the 'healthy' range, apparently.
Meanwhile, it would be wholly remiss of me not to note that our old friend Rosie Winterton is also berthed at Health, and is rather rounder than Ms Flint.
Quite why the Olympics represents a marker in the road is open to question - are we supposed to be competing in this wretched steroid fest, or is it so only the beautiful people will show up in shots of the crowd?
I've long been intrigued by the US and British approaches to obesity, with it deemed OK to hector the hefty in these parts, whereas Americans of size lobby furiously and have the delightfully named National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. I'm not making this up - google it for proof.
The fact that we have healthcare funded by taxation gives the State the 'right' to lecture us on what we should or should not do with our bodies on public interest grounds, whereas the picture on the other side of the Pond is rather different. As it stands, discrimination against the obese is already being portrayed (in some quarters) as being as unacceptable as that based on race, gender and sexual orientation, but there is no sign of that here as yet, and for the reason posited earlier, I suspect it will not come to pass any time soon.
Full disclosure time - I have a BMI of 22.7, which puts in the 'healthy' range, apparently.
Meanwhile, it would be wholly remiss of me not to note that our old friend Rosie Winterton is also berthed at Health, and is rather rounder than Ms Flint.
Labels: Olympics, The horror that is the Labour Party
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on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 at 11:19 am.
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You know you’re fat if.....
.......You are diagnosed with the flesh-eating virus, and the doctor gives you 22 more years to live.
Ho ho...
Dear God, you are a placid bunch! A Minister for Fitness. Doesn't a shadow steal across any British minds ... the shadow of the Hammer & Sickle?
I wonder what they will call the 'strength through joy' programmes they cook up?
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