Obesity and climate change

I must admit that when I read this headline "Obesity likened to climate change" on the BBC news fron page, I read likened as linked and assumed that the BBC had manage to blame obesity on climate change. In fact the article starts "Obesity poses a potential crisis on the same scale as climate change, the health secretary says.". So it is in fact a story about how the political wing of BBC/NuLab can't be blamed for wasting billions of pounds of "investment" in the NHS, as it is all our fault for being fat.

Get ready for NHS treatment charges as this government start a "war on obesity". They have attacked the rights of smokers and all but excluded them from public life, drinkers are being pushed the same way, next it will those who dare to eat more than Nanny New Labour says, who will be under attack. This is health facism from a deeply undemocratic, facist government.

Don't feel safe all you readers with a nice slim waist, all you healthy readers who are the perfect weight for your height.

First they came for the smokers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a smoker
Then they came for the drinkers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a drinker
Then they came for the obese
and I did not speak out
because I was not obese
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Looking up the exact wording of Pastor Martin Niemöller's original poem brought up some interesting variants. The one that I always though was the original was:
"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."

A look at Wikipedia showed many different versions, including some modern re-writes along the same lines as mine. This version "Re-gaining Unconsciousness" by punk band NOFX also appears to have been influenced by the poem and is along the same lines as my version:

"First they put away the dealers,
keep our kids safe and off the streets.
Then they put away the prostitutes,
keep married men cloistered at home.
Then they shooed away the bums,
then they beat and bashed the queers,
turned away asylum-seekers,
fed us suspicions and fears.
We didn't raise our voice,
we didn't make a fuss.
It's funny there was no one left to notice
when they came for us."


I do like Half Man, Half Biscuit's songs and here are the lyrics of "turn a blind eye". a song that has previously escaped me "They came for the bungee jumpers, but I was not a bungee jumper so I said nothing" "They came for Eamonn Holmes, and I believe I'm right in saying, I applauded" "They came for Danny Behr. I said she's over there, Behind the wardrobe". I would have said that the Danny Behr reference dates that song pretty exactly to 1994/5 but the song appeared on the 1998 album "Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral", I don't have that one so I cannot check. I fear I may have wandered a little way off of the point of this article but it is Sunday morning and it is my blog.

UPDATE:
From Monday 15 October's Daily Mail "Having installed himself in his local pub to watch England play India, John Vaughan was enraged when the channel was switched over to football just as the cricket was reaching its thrilling conclusion. So Mr Vaughan lit up a cigarette in protest. When he refused to extinguish it, staff pressed a panic button behind the bar. And a few minutes later six riot police officers wearing protective gear stormed the pub."