Instead of nannying everybody, why don't they target fatties by having a weighing plate you have to stand on in front of vending machines, with a beam that measures your height and if the two add up to fatness, cash automatically returned. Ha Ha ;-)

All this stuff 'for our own good' is just an excuse to raise tax. Given the fact that the country won't be able to support its elderly in a few years time, why MAKE people try to live longer? And if you can't have a drink, a smoke or a sweet (watch out, they'll be after sex next) life will be less worth living.

The health fascists strike again. Why don't these totalitarian numpties just go away and boil their heads. They obviously haven't enough work to occupy themselves.

#2 because these obese people cost the NHS and other services and hence the taxpayer too much money - our purse is finite. For most of these people their weight should be classed as a self inflicted injury, ditto VD and lung cancer. Then "charges would apply"

3 - if they've paid their NI stamp then they shoulf
d get the same free-at-the-point-of-service care as anybody else.

#3 Navvy. These people also pay tax and NIC. If you took your argument to its logical conclusion, then we would class a lot of other things as "self-inflicted" injuries, including any and all sports injuries, car accident injuries etc. etc. You could even class the cost of a pregnancy, and the resultant costs for education of the results as a self-inflicted injury.

I suppose you could make exceptions for car accidents and smokers, as they pay a lot more than their fair share in taxation.

So, where do you draw the line before your "charges would apply"?

Sparkling mineral water is also carbonated, that's not too bad for you.
Non-carbonated drinks with fruit juice and added sugars can be very bad for you.
All just seems like another "shout it from the hill tops" policy to grab a head-line rather than actually tackling the root causes.
Moving overseas permenantley is becoming more and more attractive.

While obese people are being targetted for costing the NHS "too much", it is convieniently forgotten that they also pay taxes and pay National Insurance, as #5 Guga points out.

If the government insists on focussing on fatties, what are they hoping to take our eyes off that we should be taking note of? Hmm?

No smoking, curb your drinking, eat healthy, no sweets, no salt, no driving over 20mph, no this, no that ... We are being programmed to accept Big Brother ... and not the cr*ppy TV one!!!

#6 SS has a point and my family's request to think about emigrating to Australia becomes a really serious option. Except ... the trouble I have with Australia is that humans are not at the top of the top of the food chain!

#7 BW. It's not so bad. If the snakes, the spiders and the sharks don't get you, the crocs and the box jellyfish will.

The powers that be can't have it both ways. The obese cost the NHS, but the obese die young and don't need a pension. Swings and roundabouts?

smokers cost the nhs and therefore the tax payer more money every year than the rest of the population rolled up into one.
I dont see thr nhs charging them for health services.

How about taxation by body-weight rather than income?

#10:

I take it that you are implying that ANY illness suffered by a smoker is due only to the fact that they smoke? I take it that you are also assuming that the number of smokers outnumbers non-smokers?

In which case, both of your assumptions are wildly wide of the mark. You should do some proper research before jumping on your bandwagon and making a fool of yourself.

Anyway, to get back to the point, I'm with Guga II. What I cannot understand is how these idiots get given column inches. Nearly every single day we get bombarded by some kind of "health advice" or other, most of it conflicting and a great deal of it resulting in knee jerk reactions to interfere with our lives and liberty once again.

I'd like to put all these fascist health campaigners on a ship, take it into the Arctic Circle, at least 200miles from land and then invite them to demonstrate the fact that immersion in cold water will kill you within 3 minutes by blowing the sea-cocks off the bottom of the ship with explosives and letting her sink---without liferafts.

The only drawback here would be that I would ruin a good ship.

Why don't they just tax so-called unhealthy foods as they do ciggies and booze?

I don't believe there are unhealthy foods anyway, there is nothing wrong with a bit of chocolate or a sweetie now and again. It is the way people view food that needs to change and that problem is far too complex to worry about, hence these halfwitted ideas.

Everything in moderation as my Granny used to say!

"Why don't they just tax so-called unhealthy foods as they do ciggies and booze?"

Because....

"...there is nothing wrong with a bit of chocolate or a sweetie now and again..."

I do believe you've answered your own question!

I can just picture the scene (think of the Nationwide advert when reading this)...

"How come this bar of chocolate costs £20 when it was only £1.50 the other day?"

"Ahh... Well that's the tax you see..."

"What do you mean, the tax?"

"The tax"

"What tax?"

"Well, you see, because it's ok to eat chocolate every now and then, we drop the tax on it every now and then."

"???"

"We get you fancying a bit of chocolate by dropping the price and then when your hooked... BAM! we pile on the tax!"

"???"

"Just wait a bit and it'll be back down in price again... but you'll need to be quick else, ZOOM! the price will go up again!"

"Well, when will it be low again?"

"Oh! Can't tell you that! WHOP! Oh look, you just missed it! It wen't down whilst we were talking and then back up again"

"Oh well, here's £20..."

"Pardon?"

"Here's £20. I want the chocolate."

"Ahh... Well it doesn't work like that."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't work like that. It's £30 now..."

etc
etc

`

The NANNY STATE running wild again!!

Capitalist principles dictate that one should have options and free choice. A state that interferes with this, applying bandages here and there and on an adhoc basis is will do nothing else but waste money and ANNOY.

The reality is that for every health message, there are 100 bad habits being foisted on us by food industry commercials. That is what we must address, and EDUCATION in schools and at home is clearly the place to start (young). Not just kids, often their parents as well.

We somehow also have the task of injecting a level of RESPONSIBILITY and CARING into the Capitalist Jungle. (Please, who can help me address this?)

People who watch more than minimal TV are blissfully unaware of the way their behaviour is shaped big-time, subtly and at all levels. Their own brains are virtually stripped away from them at a quite early age. (Continued, that undoubtedly assists towards Alzheimer's.) TV is, after all, the most effective medium of Social Control yet devised. I use Radio.

Have the numbskulls who come up with the nannying nonsense ever Googled "Hospital Food Keeps Patients Coming Back" or similar? Or even themselves been on the receiving end of such. Apart from MRSA, I would dread hospital simply for the quality of food served. Many factors help heal patients fast, and GOOD FOOD is just one of them. But, many folk still maintain that their health is the reponsibility of their doctor, (or of the food industry even?!) It is NOT.

We have radically to change our collective mind-set, so we need real grass roots EDUCATION, ie self-awareness and the like: I never remember anything usefully preventative at our school and STILL it is not taught in (state) schools today.

In all ways we must all ACT now, each and every one of us, for if we do not, our future will not be worth the contemplation.

`

High Octane, I was aware I was answering my own question but surely anything is better than just banning treats from places?

I don't think a Mars bar would end up as £20 but if the government or whoever are moaning at the cost of looking after the obese then, like other illnesses brought about by excess, a way of paying for it would be to tax it.

It just gets a little annoying the way we are being told what to eat, what to do, what to think by these extreme measures.

Ever noticed that whenever there are healthy alternatives, such as fruit, they are more expensive than the sweets? Not only that but the selection is usually rotten. Very appealling alternate.