The word 'obese' is banned from letters to parents of fat children in case it upsets them

By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 7:07 PM on 17th December 2008

Ministers banned the word 'obese' on letters to the parents of fat children - because focus groups did not like it, England's chief medical officer said today.

Professor Liam Donaldson revealed that the term was replaced on letters to parents by 'very overweight' over fears it would upset and stigmatise fat children.

Writing on the BBC News website he said obesity had become a taboo word or an 'O word'.

The Department of Health announced in August that for the first time parents would be routinely informed if their child was clinically overweight.

Children are weighed on entering primary school (at age four or five) and in their final year (aged 10 or 11) as part of the National Child Measurement Programme.

Parents can opt out of having their child weighed if they wish, but the vast majority do not.

Letters are then sent out to make parents aware of potential problems with their child's weight so they go and see their doctor about it if needed.

But Professor Donaldson said that in the planning stage, a 'stumbling block' was the wording of the feedback letter.

'At an earlier stage, some child health professionals had argued against the idea of a school-based weighing and measuring scheme because it would stigmatise overweight or obese children and lead them to being bullied.

'When the letter was field-tested with parents in focus group interviews there was a clear message that the term "obese" was unpopular. They felt they were being personally blamed for their child's health, and that their child would be "labelled for life".

'The majority of these parents felt that using the term "very overweight" in combination with the associated health risks was a better approach. Suddenly, we had stepped on eggshells.'

He added: 'Obesity has become the new cancer. A word that is taboo, that intimidates, strikes fear, that promoted softer euphemisms. In effect it has become an "O" word.

At the time, the National Obesity Forum described the Government's decision not to use the word obese as 'prissy and namby pamby'.

Professor Donaldson said it was not just children who appeared not to like being branded obese.

He recounted a meeting in 2006 which was held to discuss action on obesity. He described it as 'downbeat', with people saying very little.

'After the meeting broke up, one person crept back into the room and whispered to me: "We couldn't talk about it properly because someone obese was in the room",' he recalled.

'Today, the word obesity arouses deep feelings and provokes strong opinions. It influences in ways that can't always be predicted.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1096945/The-O-word-The-word-obese-banned-letters-parents-fat-children-case-upsets-them.html

The ten most unreasonable parking fines of all time

Most drivers vent a little steam when they get a parking ticket - and the number who appeal successfully proves they're often right to be annoyed.

But a new list of the most ridiculous parking tickets ever issued shows that almost nothing will stop the determined parking warden from slapping a ticket on a vehicle.

Indeed, it suggests a host of ways that officious officials can take advantage of drivers when they are at their most vulnerable.


1. The pit-stop ambush

Lorry driver Michael Collins was on his way to collect a skip in London's Belsize Park when the road beneath him collapsed. A burst water main had created a deep hole where the front wheels of his 17-tonne lorry were now stuck.

While he was waiting for roadside assistance, a parking attendant appeared. To the astonishment of nearby residents - and despite Mr Collins' protests, she stood on tiptoe and plastered a parking ticket on his windscreen - while helpfully telling him: "You can appeal".

2. The trunk road swoop

If a tree fell on your car and you escaped death by inches, you might expect some sympathy from your local council. But there was no sign of compassion from Wychavon District Council for Nicky Clegg of Stoulton, Worcs, after when a tree crashed down on her car as she drove her 82-year-old mother and 11-year-old son.

Police dragged the wrecked car - with crushed bonnet, smashed windscreen and broken wing mirrors - to the roadside and told Mrs Clegg she could leave it there and pick it up the following day. When she came back, a parking ticket was stuck on the window.

3. The knock-down surprise

Think that being badly injured is an excuse to park illegally? Think again. When Nadhim Zahawi of South London was thrown from his scooter and left lying in the road with a broken leg, a heartless warden from Lambeth Council slapped a £100 ticket on his bike.

4. The cavalry attack

You leave your horse in the street and what do you expect to find when you get back? A small pile of manure perhaps, but not a parking ticket.

Yet this is exactly what happened to Robert McFarland, a retired blacksmith from Yorkshire, when he left his horse Charlie Boy for a few moments.

Under the vehicle description on the ticket, the over-zealous warden had written "brown horse".

5. The daylight robbery

It was a terrifying ordeal for Fred Holt, 77, when he went to the bank and two masked men burst in brandishing an axe and a machete.

The robbers held the axe to a young cashier's throat while money was handed over, and the customers were forced to lie on the floor. Later, they had to give statements to police.

It seems traffic wardens had not listened when officers told them about the raid and asked them not to issue tickets. Mr Holt found a £30 parking ticket pinned to his windscreen for staying 20 minutes longer than allowed.

6. The donor kebab

"Do something amazing today" runs the slogan of the National Blood Service. In Sutton, a traffic warden did just that - by ticketing a blood donor lorry.

The mobile National Blood Service truck had parked at the same spot in Sutton, Surrey, for four years when the zealous parking attendant issued a ticket while donors gave blood inside.

Sutton council eventually waived the fine, saying the parking attendant had made a simple error of judgment. Or to put it more aptly, a rush of blood to the head.

7. The bus stop gambit

Manchester bus driver Chris O'Mahony pulled up at a bus stop in his No 77 to let passengers on. While he was handing them their tickets, a Manchester City Council parking attendant handed him one.

Passengers looked on in disbelief as the warden joined the queue to prepare the parking ticket, deposited the £40 notice and walked off.

The driver, apparently, had parked in a restricted area. The attendant said he'd been told to issue tickets to buses that park.

Council bosses cancelled the ticket and the warden was sent for retraining - hopefully as something other than a warden.
8. The heart attack attack

David Holmes felt chest pains as he was driving and headed for hospital, where he was forced to park on the roadside and was treated for a heart attack.

A nurse thoughtfully left a note on the windscreen explaining the emergency and saying Mr Holmes's daughter would pick the car up later.

It proved futile. A parking attendant slapped a parking ticket on the car and despite an appeal to the local council the £40 fine was not cancelled.
9. The random posting

Krister Nylander was dismayed to receive a parking ticket in the post for parking in Warwick.

But he knew the ticket had to be wrong - he lives in Sweden and had not visited England since he was 16.

The offending vehicle was his 20-ton snowmobile, which had barely ever left his barn, let alone Sweden.

How did it get the ticket? Absolutely no Idea.

10. Driving home the lesson

A driving instructor was issued with a CCTV parking ticket when his pupil stalled while attempting a three-point turn and could not restart the car.

The offence? Parking more than 50 centimetres from the kerb.

Couple barred from living in £1million house for year after protected newts move in after flood

Imagine that your house floods. You move out. When you are ready to return, you are told that you can't ... because great crested newts have decided to move in.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=546432&in_page_id=1770

Since floods ruined their £1million home, John and Margie Histed have been squeezed into a caravan in the grounds.

That was eight months and £250,000 worth of repairs ago.

Yet the couple still can't move back into the house - because the great crested newt apparently got there first.

The slippery squatter was discovered when a blocked drainage ditch near the couple's garden sent water coursing through the property again last week.

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Frustrated: Margie and John Histed have been forced to live in a caravan since last year's floods

This time, because carpets have yet to be laid and renovations incomplete, the damage was minimal.

But the Histeds' plans to unblock the defective ditch have been refused - because officials suspect a family of great crested newts has settled in to it.

They have ordered a three-month survey to look for the protected species but this cannot even begin until June.

Work to remove any amphibians found would then take several more months.

This means the Histeds have had to put their renovations on hold, terrified that the ditch could flood again.

"I know it's the law but it's very frustrating and bordering on the ridiculous that the fate of newts takes precedence over humans," said Mrs Histed, a 68-year-old retired doctor.

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Rare: The great crested newt is protected by British and European legislation

"Is it reasonable for us to just sit here and watch if the ditch floods our home again just because there may be some newts there?"

The Histeds' six-bedroom farmhouse is close to the M4 at Dauntsey, Wiltshire.

Last July, a drainage ditch which runs through their garden became blocked with debris nearby and burst its banks.

Three feet of water gushed into their home and the couple have spent the last eight months re-wiring the house and replacing the kitchen, boiler and central heating system.

They were just starting the final stages of repairs when they were flooded again last week.

It then emerged that the drainage ditch, which takes run-off away from the motorway, is still blocked.

They wrote to the Highways Agency asking for permission to unblock it but this was refused.

Instead, officials ordered the newt search, saying staff would have to comb the water by hand to look for the three-inch creatures.

However, the survey cannot start immediately because the newts might be breeding and birds in hedges and trees along the ditch might be sitting on eggs.

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Flood damage: The couple's Wiltshire home pictured in July last year

It is estimated that work will not begin for three months and that any operation to remove newts will not start before the autumn.

This leaves the Histeds contemplating a long summer of discontent in their caravan.

Mr Histed, 71, a retired computer consultant, said the couple already had a healthy newt population in a pond on their ten acres of grounds.

"It's not that we're not sympathetic towards wildlife - in fact, we're very keen on it and understand the need to protect certain species," he added.

"But it seems ridiculous that we can't protect our property from more flood damage for many months because newts may be there."

The great crested newt is protected under EU law as well as the Wildlife and Countryside Act. It is illegal to capture or kill it or disturb its habitat.

Last month, work on a £15million bypass for the village of Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, was suspended so £1.7million could be spent to protect one single great crested.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said that under EU law, anyone who intended to disturb any watercourse had a duty to check for newts first.

Successful schools will be forced to take pupils expelled for violent and disruptive behaviour

Successful government schools in Great Britain will be forced to take students who have been expelled for violent and disruptive behavior. That's government education for you.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=546228&in_page_id=1770

Popular schools will be forced to take on pupils who have been expelled for violent and disruptive behaviour.

Under a Government plan, all heads who expel a pupil will be expected to admit a child who has been thrown out of a neighbouring school on a "one out, one in," basis.

Sought-after schools which would have given their vacant place to a child on the waiting list would instead have to admit an unruly youngster.

They would also have to accommodate disruptive children at other times in "managed moves".

The plan, which Children's Secretary Ed Balls wants to enshrine in law, would prevent classroom hooligans from becoming concentrated in struggling schools.

But critics warned last night that discipline problems would be imported into schools which have so far managed to keep order.

The move was being seen as a fresh strike at faith schools, days after some were accused of breaking admissions rules by taking "voluntary" payments in return for places.

This plan could force them to accept pupils of a different religion instead of believers on their waiting list.

Many schools already participate in voluntary partnerships, in which they agree common rules and pool resources for dealing with disruptive children.

But Mr Balls said some groups were not operating particularly well and some schools had not signed up.

Michael Grove, the Tory children's spokesman, said: "What head teachers need is the power to exclude troublemakers without having their decision over-ridden."

Balls

School's Secretary Ed Balls said he would change the law 'at the earliest opportunity'

Sir Alan Steer, head of Seven Kings High School in Ilford, was given the task of looking at government reforms aimed at raising discipline standards and recommended some schools — particularly popular faith schools — should now be forced by law to join local "behaviour partnerships".

He said a number of schools including those independent of local authority control were avoiding taking in excluded or so-called 'difficult' pupils and demanded a change to the process.

In a report published today, Sir Alan said: "A school that permanently excludes a child should expect to receive a permanently excluded child on the principle of one out, one in.

"It remains my firm view that all secondary schools — including new and existing academies, foundation schools and pupil referral units, should participate in behaviour partnerships."

Mr Balls told the NASUWT teachers' union conference in Birmingham that he accepted Sir Alan's recommendation and added: "Schools require support — from each other, from the specialist services in their local authority such as educational psychologists and youth workers, and above all from parents."

Sir Alan said schools had a "social responsibility" to work together to deal with the most badly behaved pupils, although mainstream institutions-would not always be the right place for them.

"I don't want a situation where schools were exporting without accepting their responsibility to import, where they could," he added.

Some parents with children on the waiting list for places at popular schools might protest that, if a vacancy were to become available, their offspring should get in ahead of a child whose behaviour was so bad he or she had been expelled.

But Sir Alan said that, as headteacher of a school that was three or four times over-subscribed, he would still take the expelled pupil over the child on the waiting list.

And even the most out of control children could change his or her ways if moved to a different environment, particularly if the "critical mass" of pupils were well-behaved, Sir Alan said.

"It is easier for me actually to take a child with difficulties than it sometimes is for another school because the critical mass is positive. We shouldn't say every child that gets excluded is an irredeemable villain," he said.

Hard evidence of headteachers of successful schools refusing to take in problem pupils is difficult to find but plenty of anecdotal accounts suggest the avoidance tactic is widespread as schools seek to preserve their league table positions and popularity.

The law change could create new discipline problems in schools that have been able to improve behaviour by ejecting the children responsible.