Quote of the day
”It sends out the message that in modern day Britain, if you take personal responsibility you have to pay the price; but if you throw responsibility to the wind, the state will pick up the tab.”
- Mark Wallace from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, reacting to the news that the NHS has paid out more than £3 million of taxpayers’ money to Weight Watchers and Slimming World for providing free classes to overweight people. While the companies were paid upfront, less than 60% of those referred by their GP stuck with the 12-week course, which cost £65 for classmates paying from their own pockets. Critics lambasted the scheme as an “appalling” use of taxpayers money by a health service which rations treatment and life-extending drugs for patients with cancer, while obesity experts warned that diet classes were less likely to work if people did not attend them of their own volition and commit their own money. (full story HERE)
Yep,you pay and you want your moneys worth and it shows your keen,handed free and it”so what,It didn’t cost me anything”
Unlike smokers,who pay a large tax,there is no way to charge the obese for the extra drain on the NHS.
Charging obese people might be tricky, but striking stomach stapling and obesity drugs off the NHS would be a good start.
It is a very thin line between fairness and authoritarianism,note the present governments leanings.We do really need a ministry of ethics.
Not sure that would help, as ‘ethics’ is always open to massively different interpretations and would be abused by any government.
I just don’t understand; if people understand that being fat probably will contribute to a grizzly death then what more incentive do they need? Forget about who pays for their blubber and dependent illnesses for a moment.
Why are we so bad at getting through to people what happens when they let themselves go? Can we not show gruesome films in school of fat f*ckers getting cut open to fix clogged organs and arteries? Or stroke victims or those screwed by Diabetes? Or just too fat to walk outside? It’s a personal choice but it IS a choice. Hiding behind genetics or destiny or fate or the will of God or whatever is nonsense. You choose both what and when things get put in your mouth.
Sorry – pet hate. I have to keep walking and doing moderate exercise while I can – with MS I need to minimise the risks of things going *mechanically* wrong with me on top of shorted out neural wiring but was never a Gym Nut. But still, when I was fat it was a sign of fundamental lack of self-respect. People HAVE to take responsibility for themselves, not because I won’t pay or believe in NHS rationing but because that sort of help will be very unpleasant to endure and may not work. Deal with it!
I understand that people often overeat because they have low self-esteem & that. But how do they imagine that being morbidly obese will halp their physical or mental health?
Is it really beyond those who go on about how depressed they are that physical ill-health will make them mentally worse?
Myself, have a tendency to weight gain because I love to eat.
But I deny myself things I like & do exercise which I don’t enjoy. As a consequence, I feel top, & if I improved my diet still further would be in even better moods & could do away with the black dog altogether. It seems fairly obvious that it is in my own hands & that.
Apart from the relentless punctures I get, one of which was an hour ago, that stop me cycling!
LOL @ Asquith
I got a dog to ensure I *had* to go for at least half an hour’s walk a day (it’s a rescue lurcher so the odds are that one of his parent’s needed 5 minutes run around a day and was used to 23 and a half ours in a metal box waiting for that run, after an electric rabbit, and 20 minutes having a pee/poo!) but that’s great. He loves about an hour and sleeps contendly the rest of the time. But the point is that it keeps me moving, keeps my muscles working and keeps my weight down (which would further cripple me as signal-strength falls away) and keeps driving electrons down my neural pathways. So it’s win-win.
I’m not paid by the Dog’s Trust (I wish!) but seriously, if you love animals and want to lose a bit of weight, get a dog. Your desire to see it do well will either get you moving or, as with one ex-Councillor (a Tory) I know, buying a treadmill on which to let the wee scamp run!
I walk quite a lot, haven’t got a dog but I go from A to B on foot.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear, I’m not overweight, by “having a tendency” I mean I could get fat in a very short space of time if I let myself go. Because I do have a real love of food & that, so does my mum, whereas my dad gives little sign of caring about food in itself & is happy so long as he isn’t hungry.
I also remember you talking about this Tory councillor on other occasions. Seems as if he isn’t on your Christmas card list
I know a “clinically obese” somebody who was paid to go to slimming “classes” who, after two months, still couldn’t understand why they weren’t losing weight because they were following the recipes and guidance.
The “recipes” and “guidance” told them they could eat whatever they wanted as long as it was on the list. They interpreted it as being able to eat a portion of chips at bedtime, as long as they were home-made.
This same person has been paid to attend “university”, with their own personal supporter because they are “dyslexic”, and has somehow fiddled their way to a BA degree and hopes to work in school helping children read. Odd idea don’t you think, for somebody who is so dyslexic they can’t get through a degree course on their own!