Why does this blog make me sound like such a sanctimonious git?

Time to reappraise.

Been watching the news about the three women murdered in Ipswich during the last fortnight and the two further missing women, when it occurred to me - what is it with journalists' use of adjectives in headlines?

'The three murdered prostitutes' they screech. Do they ever say, 'The three murdered plumbers'? No, they bloody well don't. Are prostitutes somehow so much less human than the rest of us that they have to be defined, even in death, by their profession?

Which leads me to the other over-used adjective - 'black', as in 'the murdered black teenager' etc etc. This drives me nuts. The death of a teenager is always a tragedy, irrespective of colour and can it really be the journalists' intention always to imply that any murder of a black person must, by definition, be racist? I don't know the figures for murders of black people but am guessing that they probably mirror those for whites and other races, i.e. that the vast majority of murders are carried out by perpetrators known to the victim.

This is all so irritating and cynical. Journalists, of all people, must know the power of words and that the choice of one particular word over another is far more meaningful than it would appear at first glance. Let's hear simple headlines, for Gods' sake, especially on the BBC that we all pay for.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

I have been suffering from a short attention span this last few days but did note a very odd juxtaposition of programmes on Channel 4 tonight. The first was on anorexia - interesting and shocking, not least because many of the young people needing treatment actually weighed more than I do - but who obviously had huge problems around food.

This was followed by another fascinating view of the programme whose name temporarily escapes me, but it's something like 'Walk off that fat' where a fantastic array of characters, all clinically and mostly morbidly obese, attempt to walk 500 miles across Britain in an attempt to change their lives. They were wonderfully varied - some were full of self-pity and endless excuses whilst others were simply stars, most notably a young Londoner, who took no prisoners in placing the blame squarely on his and his associates' own shoulders. He was all the more admirable for that, and for the humour and determination with which he tackled this daunting task - and achieved it ultimately, with a corresponding rise in his self-esteem and confidence.

They were a motley bunch - one woman suffered from cellulitis, without a word of complaint, and was distraught to be told that she could not continue as she had been determined to use the opportunity to turn her life around; another didn't stop whingeing from the moment she arrived and tried every trick in the book to get out of it. Her boyfriend, who obviously loved her and wanted a different life for her, wasn't having any of it and persisted in encouraging her to stay but then, bad news - Daddy arived at one of the rest stops - bearing cake, the stupid man - and an unlimited supply of sympathy and ready-made excuses as to why his daughter couldn't manage this walk, unlike the others taking part. So, of course, with Daddy's pathetic and misplaced sympathy and encouragement, she gave up. Bet her boyfriend was furious. I found myself asking what needs of Daddy's were being served by having a 30-year-old daughter who was so dependent and lacking in self-esteem, and the answers I came up with were not complimentary.

Meanwhile, it blew my mind when one of the women pointed out that each of her legs must weigh 8 stone!!!!!!!!!!!! That's more than I weigh, in total. Another of the guys (my favourite - the determined one) said that his excess weight was the equivalent of carrying around a sofa everywhere he went. Those poor people must be so exhausted all the time.

Still, the programme did confirm all my previously-held views that those worthy of respect are those who face up to their own part in something and do what they can to face it, not those who make the most excuses and never take responsibility for themselves.

On another note, why don't young people know how to party any more? But that's for my next post.

So, NICE approves stomach stapling for obese teenagers.

More of the insanity. On the same news bulletin, a feature on the shortages of mental health facilities for teenagers, with the example of a 17 year old anorexic placed on an adult ward in a psychiatric hospital, causing her considerable fear and anxiety.

So, let me get this straight. Anorexia is now being treated as a life-threatening psychiatric condition. Obesity is being treated as a life-threatening medical condition, requiring surgery and not pschiatric intervention. Conclusion - it is sane to eat yourself to death, but lacking in sanity to starve oneself.

NICE - who have refused to approve treatments for both Alzheimers and MS, approve stomach stapling for obese teenagers in a world where there are demands to ban thin role models. Can I really be the only person who thinks that this is utterly demented, not to mention a disgrace?

The reason that anorexics are being referred for psychiatric treatment is because this is a complicated illness, raising many issues including those of perfectionism, pressure, control and anxiety. There are comparatively few anorexics when compared to the vast and ever-growing numbers of the obese, thus the expense of sending anorexics for psychiatric treatment can presumably be borne by society. However, those at the other end of the spectrum - for this is surely what obesity is - are now to be funnelled down the surgical route,(which is cheap in comparison to therapy), with no treatment whatsoever for the emotional and psychiatric issues that led them to eat themselves almost to death.

The justification given by NICE was that this was to be used when all else fails. Well, forgive me for being too stupid to comprehend how someone who cannot discipline themselves to reduce their food intake for the comparatively short length of time necessary to get their weight under control can possibly see it as preferable to eat a virtually liquid and abnormally-tiny diet for the rest of their lives as a result of their stomach being stapled. Could it be that the 'experts' simply cannot spare the time to look at the deeper issues underlying obesity but, faced with a government panicking about the lardiness of the nation and its economic consequences, have just jumped for the cheapest quick fix? Or is is that parents of obese children cannot face their part in this rapidly-growing national scandal? I despair of the number of times I see TV documentaries on family life where there is an entire cupboard dedicated to sweets, chocolate and crisps, (to which the children have access) coupled with a large TV in every room and a Playstation - but no bikes or sports equipment.

I suspect that obesity (like anorexia) involves not only issues of self-esteem but also of self-discipline, control and power, not to mention love and/or the lack of it, aside from the obvious issues around living habits derived from parental behaviour and values. There is also a less well-known link between illness and attention-seeking, in that many people who are chronically-ill do find it a struggle to recover (when it is possible to do so) because often their illness has brought them the support and attention that they previously lacked. Maybe if some support, love and attention could be brought to the lives of these teenagers before they head out on the path of self-destruction, whether by self-starvation or by eating themselves to death, it might cease to matter what the shape of people in the public eye is perceived to be..........but that would, of course, involve all of us in taking responsibility, not just for our own lives but also those of our kids, which would demolish the highly-developed victim culture we now have in this country. No, no doubt we'll just send these fat kids off for major surgery and continue to blame thin celebrities for all the pressures that teenagers face and their sense of utter powerlessness in the society we have created.

Well - I'm back on my hobby horse. One of the Sunday broadsheets published an article this weekend on thin models being banned from London Fashion Week as they are apparently such bad role models. In the same section, there was another lengthy article on obesity and the government's and Jamie Oliver's efforts to combat it. (There was also an obesity map showing that East Anglia holds 4 of the top 5 of obese towns in the UK).

Am I missing something here? Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, is apparently opposed to these thin models and designers who use them are being told that some £62,000 of funding for our fashion industry will be with-held if the thin models aren't withdrawn from the shows. The Eating Disorders Association (for whom I have, up til now, had some respect) argue that thin models are apparently powerful and bad role models, and lead many women to hate their own bodies.

Hmmm. I wonder. Is obesity not an eating disorder? I don't see the EDA or anyone else arguing that fat role models should be withdrawn from public view - despite the fact that they are presumably much more effective (bad) role models as this country is in the grip of an obesity epidemic. In fact, it's probably not even PC to use the word fat, although all the negative terms for thin are trotted out yet again. Certainly it doesn't seem that thin people are very effective as role models as the majority of our population are overweight - maybe we need more thin people in the public eye, not less? And do commentators ever consider that the reason many overweight people hate their bodies is probably because they can see the rolls of fat in the mirror and don't find it vastly attractive - not to mention it not exactly being conducive to health.

I think it's about time the worm turned and thin people started speaking out about the fact that they are generally healthier and cost the NHS less money than those who are overweight. Of course, this will mean overturning the well-established convention that we don't use the word 'fat' but tough. I don't notice the (admittedly ghastly) Gillian McKeith being shy of using it when transforming people's lives and health. How dare an elected official (as in the London Mayor) decide that public money cannot be used if thin people are going to be employed as a result of it? Why don't the EDA acknowledge that anorexia and other related disorders are, as I understand it, extremely complex psychological conditions not unrelated to issues of control, rather than jumping on this facile and misleading anti-thin bandwagon? I have a teenage daughter and, irresponsible or not, I'd rather she looked like Lily Cole than Dawn French as I think it would be less likly to damage her health or her self-esteem. I think we are in danger of allowing an obese nation's jealousy of those who are not overweight to dictate employment and funding issues and it needs to stop.

I confess to being a natural size 4-6/US size 0 myself in the interests of balance. I have never suffered from an eating disorder, have never been on a diet, but have always exercised and eaten healthily. I don't own a pair of scales and I don't judge others on their weight, unless they invite me to do so by being rude about mine.

I do, however, judge all the deluded individuals and organisations that can make such ludicrous statements at a time when the political agenda is full of concern about how the economy and the NHS will survive unless something is done about obesity, government ministers included. Mind you, after years spent working for MPs, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when they get themselves into difficulties by trying to take utterly contradictory positions on topical issues. Bear in mind, oh reader, that Members of Parliament may well run for Parliament in order to try to improve things for the public but they depend on the electorate to put them in a position to do so. Whilst protecting the nation's health and wealth by doing something about obesity is obviously morally the right decision, when the vast majority of your electorate are obese, what's a poor MP to do?

That's it for now - until the next idiotic anti-thin comment. This was supposed to be a blog mainly for the purposes of improving my writing, but it's not happening so far. Must try harder - and have less opinions. My excuse it that I'm still programmed to read all the papers and react to all political commentary.

Further to my last rant, I have been mulling over an unbelievable comment by Rosie Millard of the Sunday Times back in April, attached here.

Mummy, can I go on a diet?
ROSIE MILLARD

Nobody wants young people to become obese but paradoxically the looming epidemic of dangerously fat children across the West is due in no small measure to western worship of the stick-thin, lollipop-headed clotheshorse. An entire nation focused on Being Thin has turned our relationship with food from a pleasurable, civilised experience into a wholly unnatural affair involving processed meals, obsessive calorie counting, meal replacement drinks, bingeing, fasting and so on; all of which, more often than not, help to pile on the pounds.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2124939,00.html


So now we thin people are not only responsible for supposedly encouraging millions of young people to become anorexic, but we're also responsible for encouraging millions of others to overeat. My God - is the world going mad? I eat what I need and no more. I have never forced food down anyone's neck, nor have I ever refused anyone I know food when they are hungry. Furthermore, I have never touted my own body shape as better than any other. However, I do take responsibility for what I, and my children, put in their mouths. Maybe it's about time others did the same - and also considered that if you don't eat more than you burn off by exercise, you don't generally get fat. I am sick to death of the growing victim culture in this country and political correctness gone mad.

More on victim culture later as I don'thave time for everything I have to say on this subject here. Despite having been in an occupation where political correctness would seem to be a requirement, I think it's about time we started saying the unsayable and returning to a situation where our first step should be to consider our own responsibilities. Now I'm sounding like my grandmother - but hey, maybe she had a point.

Now I've started, I can't stop.

Here's another thought for the day - since when did it become politically-incorrect to be thin? Like my contemporaries, I read 'Fat is a feminist issue' and sympathised with the sentiments expressed; I fully-supported the struggle of overweight people to receive the same respect as everyone else.

However, in the last few years there has been a subtle, but definite shift. Whilst it has now rightly become unacceptable to use derogatory comments about anyone carrying excess poundage, the same cannot be said for those of us who are thin. Newspapers and magazines, and even the broadcast media, appear unable to use the word 'thin' without prefacing it with derogatory terms such as 'stick' or 'skeletally'.

As I understand it, obesity poses a greater threat to health than does anorexia, so whilst I have supported attempts to make magazine editors more responsible in their choice of role models for young people, can it really be sensible to make thin people the new bogeymen and women?

As a non-dieting size 6 myself, I am sick and tired of trying to find clothes small enough to fit me outside of the children's department. When I do succeed (rarely and usually only in Topshop) there are hardly any items in that size, but lots and lots of size 16s - and I have to pay the same amount for my small scrap of fabric as someone twice my size. How can this be an incentive to people to avoid obesity? Get thin and never be able to find that dress you love in your size - yeah, great. No thanks.

For goodness' sake, let's not allow political correctness to send us mad. Thin people are generally healthier than obese people. There are fat people and there are thin. All of us are entitled to the same respect we would like for ourselves - so please tell me why, when I would not dream of commenting on a person's excess weight, even strangers feel free to make remarks to me along the lines of 'My God, you're so thin. You don't eat enough' or calling me 'stick-thin' etcetera. Yes, fat people have feelings. Newsflash - so do thin ones!