The news this week that the state was handing over £3million a year to Weight Watchers, and Slimmers World, to persuade the ‘deserving poor’ to shed some of their lard, incensed me.
It came hard on the heels of a government report lambasting ministers for spending vast sums of money on “ineffective and possibly damaging” interventions which they hope will force lifestyle changes on the public, without carrying out the most basic research to see if the programmes make any difference.
The Health Select Committee said: “More public money must not be wasted on ineffective and possibly damaging interventions”.
Yet within days we hear that valuable NHS resources are going to a private company, apparently on the advice of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, who recommends that GPs send people to free slimming classes, because it was cheaper than weight loss pills or stomach stapling!
The NHS is in the business of saving lives. There is a justification for preventative medicine. The dental checks that were once commonplace were an excellent example. Weightwatchers is not a check-up however, nor is it a ‘cure’ – it is an incentive to taking the cure, as are weight loss pills and stomach stapling.
The ‘cure’ comes free – eat less, exercise more.
I was about to write the words – ‘this is a bribe, nothing more nothing less’ – when a little more research turned up this gem……
In January NHS managers in Kent faced criticism after it emerged they were offering people ‘bribes’ of up to £425 if they managed to lose weight.
The Pounds for Pounds scheme run by Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust offered patients cash prizes as part of a diet competition, which paid out £70 to participants who lost 15lbs, a further £90 for 30lbs and £265 for those who shed 50lb.
Those who are still managing to work in these straightened times should not have to pay out extra taxes to bribe these selfish blobs. During the same week we also heard of a family of four with a combined weight of 83 stone saying they are “too fat to work” and need more than the £22,000 they currently receive in benefits.
Fat cat bankers and Fat blob chavs – we cannot afford to support you both.
One of you is going to have to go ‘cold turkey’ and less of the turkey ‘twizzlers’.
Get off the Taxpayer’s back – you’re too damned heavy.
Anna is the landlady of the Raccoon Arms. She lives in the Monbazillac area of South West France and still takes a keen interest in British politics.
{ 11 comments }
Anna,
It’s the constant brainwashing that I cannot tolerate. Eat this, don’t eat that, eat five a day, don’t give your children crisps, you are killing your children, etc ad nauseam. Surely the govt should want us to die earlier to preserve the state pension ponzi scheme?
I’m currently in Pennsylvania and my 5’7″ 13.5 stone frame is positively svelte over here.
Henry,
I’m 60 and I was positively anorexic compared to the great lumps of lard that I shared a campus with at a certain Welsh University!
The sign reading ‘only four persons allowed in this lift’ was amended to read ‘only three students in this lift’ for good reason!
Surely the govt should want us to die earlier to preserve the state pension ponzi scheme?
Just wait a few minutes and see what I am about to put up – will flabber your ghast!
Let them eat their food off a Jade Goody Commemorative Plate
Sorted
Let them eat their food off a Jade Goody Commemorative Plate
~
Would eating smaller portions while watching the televised funeral make them Wake-Watchers?
Henry Crun – I am thinking of moving to Pennsylvania.
Glo!
Wake-Watchers! lol.
The discovery of the ‘fat gene’ has been a God-send to some people. Why scientists had to admit that they had found this gene, I will never know. It has given some people carte blanche to kill themselves slowly.
What we need to do now is ensure that people who have the ‘fat gene’ eat sensibly. I would say that anybody who eats a lot should get off their butt and work off those extra calories.
If they are too fat to exercise for health reasons ………….. DON’T eat as much. It really is that simple. The workers in Auschwitz did not put weight on.
Over the last few years I realised I was unwittingly been doing my own research into the existence of firstly a) the plump gene, secondly b) the portly gene, and finally these days c) the fat gene. In fact, my research has resulted in such a resounding conclusion that I am shortly changing my name by deedpoll to Fat Jean.
Hey Glo! You would feel more at home with my mate Bob the Blob then!
Are you chavin’ a larf, Coco?
I like the name Fat Jean, Glo. My mates Bob the Blob and Larrie the Lard would love you – just for your name!
Jesus wasn’t fat……..
NO TO LISBON MEANS NO TO LISBON!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38059363467&ref=mf
JD.