The right to choose poor health

Peter Rhodes writes: How much money should a caring nation spend telling people the bleedin' obvious?

By now, there cannot be a chain-smoker or lardarse who does not know that their lifestyle is unhealthy. The keep-fit propaganda is trumpeted at them from every TV ad and billboard.

Yet a Lords committee says the Government's policy of "nudging" people towards a healthier lifestyle is not enough and should be reinforced by changes in the law.

Bunkum.

If people who understand the consequences choose to gorge, smoke or get paralytic, let them.

And if the state has money to spare, then let's spend it on people who fall sick through no fault of their own.

A few weeks ago a dedicated young teacher I know collapsed and almost died.

She has been diagnosed with type-one diabetes and will be injecting herself four times a day for the rest of her life.

That is where NHS money should be spent, not on preaching healthy-living to the defiantly unhealthy.