Fat is a conservative issue...

So, Cameron's speech. Predictably, the left are running the line that the nasty Tories are back, blaming poor people for their poverty and sick people for their illness. Mike Smithson questions how dangerous a line this is politically, while the Mirror bloviates crapulently about hugging hoodies transmogrifying into kicking grannies. On the other hand, Stephen Pollard and the DK have applauded the sentiment.

I was surprised and impressed by the absence of the usual get-out clauses and mealy-mouthedness that accompanied the speech. That the Tories have accepted that misleading and euphemistic language can exacerbate problems rather than solve them is extremely welcome. That they are finally talking the language of personal responsibility is better. We are autonomous beings; our actions have consequences. If we eat pies and drink beer we will get fat. It's like Peter Cook on Elizabeth Taylor, who blamed her weight gain on her 'glands'.

'Yes, poor woman!' he squawks in Cook's voice. 'Elizabeth would be sitting in her suite at the Inn on the Park, quite casually watching the three o'clock at Haydock, and suddenly her glands would pick up the phone and order a tray of eclairs and a bottle of Courvoisier! No, she'll scream! But it's too late! The order's gone through!' Resuming his standard delivery, Fry explains that Cook's fantasy ended 'with Taylor in the bathroom, trying to lock the door against the glands, while they smash their way in and force the food down her throat.

I agree with the DK and others that it's not for the Government to enforce morality. There's no reason why they can't remind us of our own responsibilities.