Comment With.... Barry Speker

The lockdown has been recognised as having a detrimental effect on physical and mental health, with the Eat Out to Help Out then adding its (rather enjoyable) contribution. The Government's new strategy 'Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives' is not overdue. Obesity leads to increase in Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, at least 12 types of cancer and reduced life expectancy. Is the soup and shakes diet-plan the answer?

About two-thirds of the UK population are estimated to be overweight or living with obesity (BMI of 25 or above). The strategy will be quite a challenge. Now doctors at the European and International Congress on Obesity have found that people feel the situation is made worse by being called fat or obese. Instead the preferred term is ‘overweight’ and to refer to ‘unhealthy weight’ rather than obese, clinically obese, super obese and morbidly obese, all of which produce feelings of disgust.

Considering such terms as harmless and affectionate as in Fats Domino, Fats Waller, Fatty Arbuckle and Fats Jenkins are no longer woke acceptable. The doctors even said that the least favourable descriptions are ‘super obese, chubby and fat’. How will my good friend Roy Chubby Brown deal with this? The name ‘Roy Overweight Brown’ does not have the same ring to it – and the chant as he appears on stage of ‘You fat b£%$@^d’ may not adapt to the change. Chubbs will not give a &%$@.

Pardoning the language but note that nine Emmys have been won by the American comedy show ‘Schitt’s Creek’. How will the BBC cope with announcing that on the pre nine o’clock watershed news broadcasts? They will need a new paddle.

The aim of promoting longevity has a warning in Japan where there is no problem with obesity. They have marked their annual holiday, which pays respect to the elderly, by announcing they now have more than 80,000 centagenarians, which means one in every 1,500 Japanese is over 100. This causes real problems with healthcare, pensions and the low percentage of taxpayers, and a sharply falling birth rate. Cynics say we are dealing with this by boatloads of reinforcements arriving across the North Sea.

The deal signed in Washington between Israel and its new Gulf partners, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, should be seen as a historic agreement signifying that it is possible for there to be a real peace between Israel and neighbouring Arab states. There is already cooperation with Egypt and Jordan. Even Saudi Arabia, the epicentre of the Sunni Muslim world may now openly normalise its relationship with Israel.

A Bahraini activist has written that there is a growing awareness that Israel are not foreign colonialists but a sincere and legitimate part of the region. There is acknowledgement of the historic truth that Christians, Jews and Muslims owe their descent to Abraham and a biblical connection which should abhor lifelong antagonism – although the worst aggression often occurs when family members fight each other.

This makes it all the more exciting that many Gulf Arabs are celebrating the rapprochement with the Jews of Israel. It is time for reconciliation and peaceful co-existence rather than the Palestinian strategy of teaching hate of Israel and the Iranian backed determination to destroy Israel completely. The fact that the peace is brokered by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, both beleaguered at home, should not detract from the prize of securing peace in the Middle East and the unexpected call for the two to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Some good news at last to come from the period of the pandemic.

The historic recognition of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the sacrifice by what Churchill called ‘the few’ was limited by the covid-19 restriction to the few who were permitted to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey. The fly-past by three spitfires and a hurricane was a nostalgic reminder of the sacrifice which prevented invasion of Britain.

It was also reassuring to hear Sir Keir Starmer express the call for Labour to rediscover its patriotism and pride in Britain. However, he still faces challenges from Len McCluskey and the hard left, who hold firm to the Corbyn agenda and will oppose what they see as a more centrist direction, even if it is more attractive to the working class ‘red wall’ voters lost at the last election.

Is it not time for Amazon as one of the tech giants with Google, Facebook and Apple to deal with online abuse of J K Rowling? Critics of her views on transgender issues have deliberately skewed ratings on her latest book Troubled Blood, her fifth in the Cormoran Strike series, written as Robert Galbraith. The 944 page novel was published recently to critical acclaim.

There was then a barrage of one star reviews on the influential Goodreads.com including from many admitting they had not read it. They were deliberately seeking to downgrade the book because they accuse Rowling of being transphobic.

Multinationals make noises about their intention to clean up the internet. Amazon has the opportunity to deal with trolls. Goodreads with 110 million members, and owned by Amazon, is the world’s largest site for book reviews. One should be able to rely on it as being genuine. It states that it will not tolerate abuse of its ratings system; but that is precisely what is being done by Rowling opponents, seeking to vindictively damage her ratings. Amazon needs to act.