Over in the UK, Polly Toynbee is a prominent left-wing columnist whose columns are normally good for hours of harmless merriment. Here she is on the obesity ‘epidemic’:
“The inequality/obesity link is mirrored internationally. America has by far the most unequal society and by far the fattest. Britain and Australia come next. Europe is better and the Scandinavian countries best of all. No doubt there are also social policy reasons for this: the best social democracies pick up family problems earliest and offer most support, putting people back on their feet, preventing social exclusion. But the narrower the status and income gap between high and low, the narrower the waistbands.”
Oh really? Blogger Scott Burgess, ahem, weighs in and concludes as follows:</p.
“Unfortunately, no statistics are available as to the obesity rate in Belarus, which leads the world in income equality, and therefore represents Polly Toynbee’s vision of heaven on earth. Polly is correct about one thing, though. As she puts it: “This obesity debate is full of humbug and denial.”” I couldn’t have said it any better.”
Ha ha ha.