Alex Massie Alex Massie

New Government Ploy: Fat Tests for Pensioners

Can this really be happening?

Everyone aged between 40 and 74 will be called in to their GP for a ‘fat test’ and prescribed weight management and exercise if they are found to be overweight, under a new Government drive on obesity.

Why, god help us, yes it can. And is. How, er, fatuous. The whole piece merits reading for its head-in-hands ghastliness. All thisbeing the case, though, isn’t it obvious that this government programme doesn’t go far enough? Why wait until people are 40? It’s too late then, innit? And why are lardy 75 year olds getting off, er, lightly? Surely they should be “prescribed weight management and exercise” too? In fact, they should be required to spend an hour a day being gently spun around a kind of geriatric gerbil-wheel…

Every time one suspects that the term “Nanny state” is over-used, these clowns produce something that just makes one despair. And despair is important, because it uses up less energy – and hence is less exercise – than rage.

And what will happen when some 72 year-old codger refuses to take the necessary “weight management” steps? Will he be refused all treatment on the grounds that, like the poor smokers, he deserves to be ill or something? Where, in the name of god, will it all end?

[Hat-tip: Simon Clark]

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