We have two problems in Britain (amongst others):

• child obesity: the kids here are stuffing their faces with crisps and not doing enough exercise;
• recruitment problems in the military.

Why not solve both problems by re-introducing National Service? This time, it could be for both boys and girls, possibly those who don’t continue into further education (i.e. 16-year-olds). I am aware that many teenagers are too fat too join the army; how about a special fat branch, where obese teenagers can go until they have a sensible weight, and then they can join the army proper, as it were. I’m sure they wouldn’t be there for too long.

Problem sorted.

As an aside, the army uses the body mass index (BMI) to determine obesity. The problem with this measurement is that it takes a ratio of height to weight and does not take into account what that weight consists of; it may be muscle or it may be fat. A much better system would be to measure percentage body fat, although I’m less convinced than I used to be about this: the percentage changes depending on whether you tell the scales you’re male or female, yet you still have the same amount of body fat. If you’re a man, you’re a lot less fatty than a woman. This is certainly true for my bathroom scales, anyway.

categories: History and Current Affairs
tags: kids