“Real Story”

I happened upon “Real Story” with Fiona Bruce yesterday evening. This type of sob story is not my usual television fare, I happened upon it by chance and much like a gawper at a road accident I was transfixed, so kept watching. This episode concerned obese teenagers. And, we are told:

The number of teenagers who are overweight is heading towards 50%.

A combination of bad diets and a lack of exercise mean our young generation is growing overweight or morbidly obese.

meaning their size will inevitably lead to an early death from illnesses like Type II Diabetes and Heart Disease.

One controversial option being considered is to offer weight loss surgery on the NHS.

That quote is loaded with meaning as it illustrates just where our society has come. The teenager featured; Jack Glassett; had reached a weight of around twenty stone. He and his parents felt that things are now so out of control, he needs help. Well, no problem with that; a combination of addictive eating and possible poor parenting skills doubtless may be helped by an imposed regime of healthy eating and physical exercise. Oh, no, that’s not what they mean by “help”.

Ah, I’m skipping ahead of myself a bit here. Jack had been to see doctors for help. The doctors, to paraphrase, replied that his condition was a result of eating too much and exercising too little. The cure? Eat less and exercise more. This had not worked. A clip showing a family barbecue demonstrated admirably that it had not worked as Jack stuffed his face with a giant beef burger (this, it seems was not entirely as it appeared). The doctors had failed to help, and now, having reached crisis point, Jack and his dad want a stomach stapling operation on the NHS. Ah, yes, the good old welfare state to the rescue. The taxpayer is required to bail them out.

My parents were not obese. They lived through more austere times. School – when it wasn’t being bombed by the Nazis – was reached by walking (exercise) and food was rationed (healthy diet). Consequently, obesity wasn’t generally a problem. And, of course, if you wanted the NHS to help out with the odd operation or two… er, it didn’t exist. Their children – my generation – grew up to appreciate that the welfare state was there for noble purposes, to provide for those less able to fend for themselves, for an equal chance in life and free healthcare at the point of delivery for everyone. Noble ideals indeed. I, too, along with my siblings walked to school and later cycled. We were not particularly well off, but we ate proper meals (meat and two veg). Enough, but never too much. We were taught not to waste food and only to have enough for our needs. It is no surprise, therefore, that I am moderately fit and the right weight for my height.

So what went wrong? Why did my generation make such awful whingeing parents who demand that the state do everything for them, including thinking and raising their children? That Jack Glassett is on the point of surgery to resolve a lifestyle problem tells of something going horribly, horribly wrong. And, it isn’t just obesity, it’s everything. A problem these days seems to be appended with that statutory whine; “the government needs to do something”. Like these people have so little self worth, so little sense of personal responsibility that they can’t do anything for themselves. After all, Jack’s diet and exercise regime is his parents’ responsibility, not the state’s.

Why don’t children walk or cycle to school – as opposed to the road hogging SUVs clogging up every route past the schools? It isn’t because there are more child abductions and murders (unless you read the red tops, in which case there’s a pervert on every street corner). They happened when I was a child and when my parents were children and the rate was pretty much the same. Too many people believe too much of the rabid gutter press, it would seem. Paedophilia may be a fancy new name, but the the crime is as old as mankind – there is nothing new here and the risk is no more magnified than it was. The roads may be busier and the consequent risk of a road accident may be increased, but we have cycle lanes and it is not beyond the wit of man to put in separated ones on school routes.

No, what has changed is that wonderful welfare state. My generation, and perhaps more tellingly, the following one have known nothing else. The austerity of the war years and immediate post war ones is long forgotten. People have become so reliant on the welfare state that they now see it as their right. When they whine in that wheedling tone, “the government ought to do something”, it is because they expect government to do everything for them, it’s their right, so they are only demanding what is rightfully theirs after all. How long, I wonder, before someone demands legislation requiring social workers to wipe peoples’ arses for them?

There is one small glimmer of a positive note here. After travelling (presumably at the BBC’s expense) to New York to see lots of other fat kids, Jack has decided to try the exercise and less food option once more. I wish him well. That, after all, is the only surefire cure.