---

Obesity

My Lords, I am too fat—I use that word deliberately, rather than obese, because the word obese is a euphemism—because I eat too much and because I follow the advice of Oscar Wilde on exercise, which is that whenever I feel the need for it I lie down and let it pass. Fatness is an extremely simple problem; if you eat too much and do not take enough exercise you get fat. The more we faff about with enormous reports, the more that message gets lost. That message alone must get across, about people not eating so much and taking more exercise. If I obey my wife and do not eat great chunks of butter on my bread, my waistline will go down by four inches. I should also walk rather than drive to the station.