Obesity is choice

"OBESITY is lack of knowledge," declares one emailer in an online debate about grossly obese children being taken into care. Actually, obesity is too many pies, chips and fizzy drinks. There is not an obese adult in this country who does not know perfectly well what causes fatness. You can stuff people full of knowledge but if they choose to stuff themselves full of rubbish, that's their own decision. Obesity is choice.

WHEN someone is charged with an offence, there are rules governing what may and may not be reported. In particular the media avoid any disclosure of the accused's criminal record, or lack of it, which could prejudice a fair trial. That's why you won't hear a broadcaster telling its audience that someone recently charged with an offence is a serial killer or, for that matter, a man of unblemished character. Yet in the case of Moazzam Begg, remanded in custody on terrorism charges, the BBC repeatedly and pointedly reported that Begg "has never previously been charged with an offence." I cannot recall a single remand hearing when such information was reported. Was it an isolated error in the newsroom or is Auntie Beeb quietly letting us know that she has joined the Moazzam Begg defence team?

WE held our annual dog walk at Chateau Rhodes which consists of lots of humans and dogs getting covered in mud and soaked in the rain before the dogs sleep it off and the humans eat and drink. Special occasions demand special measures: emergency chairs and that important standby, overspill custard.

THE star of the event was a friend's spaniel puppy, a wriggling bundle of affection so wide-eyed and ookie-snookums sweet that she makes Bambi look like a skinhead. The pup has enjoyed 15 blissful weeks of existence knowing nothing but love. Grown-ups love her, kids love her and other dogs love her. I thought it would be a useful part of her development to introduce her to a truly malevolent creature, one whose idea of a good time is to find adorable fluffy creatures and bite their heads off. Sweet little puppy, meet the cat. Our 14lb tabby approached the puppy and did that thing cats do, making himself twice his normal size. We quickly decided to postpone the meeting for another few weeks on the grounds that nothing spoils a social event quite like disembowelment.

HERE'S a bizarre story. I received an email from a woman in response to last week's item about badgers. I sent a reply and thought no more about it. A couple of hours later I opened my emails to find four more messages from her. The final one claimed her three earlier emails, and mine, had vanished from her iphone. She continued: "As you were the only person who was aware of the four emails apart from me and my husband, I can only assume you hacked my email account and deleted those emails." A couple of hours later she emailed again to say she had reported me to the police. At the time of writing no patrol cars have roared up the drive but we live in utterly bonkers times so who knows how this might develop? Move over, Rebekah.

THE sanctions bite. The rouble tumbles. The Moscow stock market trembles. The age of warfare is over; the age of commerce has arrived. It is international trade, not bullets and bombs, that decides the fate of nations. This was a very popular theory in the early years of the 20th century - just before the First World War.

WHEN you hear the name Steve McQueen do you think of a) the director of the Oscar-winning movie 12 Years a Slave or b) Frank Bullitt, the coolest detective ever to scream through the streets of San Francisco in a Ford Mustang? It's a generation thing.