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Anorak News | Gym’ll Fix It

Gym’ll Fix It

by | 13th, October 2003

‘WE are a nation of fatties – a country of Eamonn Holmeses and Vanessa Feltzes.

Couch potato

That was the Mail’s message last week when it warned that a whole generation were at risk, with one in 10 six-year-olds and one in five 15-year-olds clinically obese.

But what to do about it? Common sense might suggest that we persuade children to eat less and/or exercise more, but common sense must get past the Express first.

And the Express (which these days has become a kind of mini-Mail – except even nastier and more poisonous) is having none of it.

It reports “fury at nanny state health chiefs who want to FORCE patients to get fit”.

And it complains that Government suggestions that overweight patients should be allowed to join gyms with taxpayers’ money is a step too far.

“This is money that would be better spent on ensuring prompt, high-quality treatment for the tens of thousands languishing on NHS waiting lists,” it says.

This may or may not be true (although even the Express has to admit that fat, unhealthy people already cost the country billions of pounds) – but is the paper now really so twisted in its priorities that it is anti-exercise?

Or does it just want to ape the Mail in trying to frighten the living daylights out of middle England?

Take last week’s front-page stories, for example. On Monday, it led with “NHS In Breast Cancer Scandal”; on Tuesday it was “£18,000 For Each Asylum Seeker”; on Wednesday “Rip-Off Banks”, followed by Thursday’s “60 Tax Rises” and finally “Millions Forced To Retire In Poverty” on Friday.

Truly, there is no silver lining in which the Express cannot find a cloud.’



Posted: 13th, October 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink