Boris Johnson
Lifestyle

OPINION: ‘Boris Johnson’s obesity crackdown sucks all the joy out of life’

PM's comments amount to nothing more than fat shaming

Earlier today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a national crackdown on obesity.

Under his new plan, junk food adverts will be banned on TV and online before the watershed.

Supermarkets will be banned from displaying sweets and chocolate at the checkout.

Buy-one-get-one-free promotions on high-fat products will also come to an end.

Boris Johnson said he was “too fat” when he was hit by coronavirus (Credit: Splash News)

Restaurants, cafes and takeaways with more than 250 employees will be told to put calorie labels on their food.

The same calorie counts may be added to alcohol by the end of the year.

GPs will even be told to prescribe bike rides to overweight patients.

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All joy will be sucked out of life. Do not pass go, go directly to food jail.

Fat shaming is alive and well

It’s fat shaming at its very best and most high profile.

Announcing the news, Boris admitted that he had been “too fat” and “way overweight” when he was struck down with coronavirus in the spring.

And it seems there’s nothing like a reformed overweight politician to ram the fitness message down the throats of Brits who enjoy a spot of indulgence.

boris johnson
Boris’s new obesity crackdown amounts to nothing more than fat shaming (Credit: Pixabay)

And I say that as an overweight woman currently sat munching on bar of Dairy Milk.

“Losing weight is hard but with some small changes we can all feel fitter and healthier,” Boris nagged somewhat patronisingly.

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Anyone who has ever struggled with their weight will know it’s not as easy as that.

Temptation is all around, but life is too short to deprive yourself of the things you enjoy.

It’s fat shaming at its very best and most high profile.

I say we head out and enjoy Rishi Sunak’s half-price Eat Out to Help Out scheme and stuff our faces till our heart’s content!

It starts on Monday (August 3), food fans.

Boris isn’t a qualified dietician, to the best of my knowledge he has no fitness qualifications.

Big Boris is watching you

The “Better Health” campaign is not meant to be “excessively bossy”, the PM said.

However, it sure feels that way when he’s restricting what we watch, what we eat, what we buy, what we spend, how our GPs treat us and how often we exercise.

It’s shocking that Boris is essentially blaming fat people for the government’s poor handling of the pandemic.

Eating less and working out more won’t fix the reason people are overweight.

Brits are being urged to head out and enjoy half-price food in the Eat Out to Help Out deal when it launches (Credit: Unsplash)

All this does is make fat people feel like failures and justifies fat-ism.

Which, if you’ve ever been on the heavier side of normal, you’ll know is alive and well.

Money, money, money

“If we all do our bit, we can reduce our health risks and protect ourselves against coronavirus – as well as taking pressure off the NHS,” Boris said.

Blah, blah, blah. So there’s the crux of it.

Pressure… or money if you’re an old cynic like me.

Boris wants you to lose weight so you can save his government money.

After the over-40s were hit with the prospect of a tax hike to pay for their social care in later life, it appears no one is safe.

Who’s next on BoJo’s hit list, I wonder…

Join the debate on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor