The Real Big Brother.

thus we will finally be able to determine the specific density of knowledge

I seem to remember numerous medical tests being carried out when I was in school anyway. Lots of weighing. Lung capacity stuff too. Seriously though. What are they going to do if the child is overweight? Expel them? Arrest their parents? What a bunch of twattery.

No, but they can educate young children about dieting. That way my daughter can come home and refuse food when she's underweight. Ths happened when she was seven. She was underweight because I cook real food and she's always out on her skates. Try educating the parents instead!

Dangerous stuff? Oh no, it's the nanny state! It's the beginning of the end! Britannia is sinking! This sounds like common sense to me - but then it would, wouldn't it, because I'm a woolly-minded liberal.

I cook pretend food. You only have to buy it the once and there's never any mess or washing up. Right enough, my kids are a tad underweight, but their teeth are in great shape due to all that pointless gnawing.

I'll keep that in mind - good for saving money. Bet they don't grow as fast either.

I don't agree with this kind of thing either. We blame MacDonalds advertising to kids, but I remember such adverts when I was a kid. But my parents said 'no' and that was the end of it. What about parental responsibility for what their children eat? Lisa makes a very good point. However I think we need to be mindful of the 'slippery slope fallacy'. For example, introducing ID cards is something I disagree with...but it does not necessarily mean we will become a fascist police state! (http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/slippery-slope.html) I'm ashamed to admit that us Catholics are awful at employing this flawed logic. Amendments to the 'Right to die' doesn't respect disabled people's needs and will lead to people being pushed into suicide Screening genetically for inherited diseases and selecting embryos that do not have these genes will lead to Eugenics and designer babies. Both these are clear examples of slippery slope logic. The claims are fallacious because there is no evidence for the claim Event A leads to Scenario B. I know I've deviated massively but my point is I agree with you all but weighing kids will not inevitably lead to the state having masses of files on every facet of our existence. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

I worry about anorexia with my daughter. She's now 11, and from her underweight days pudged up a little (a little). So I stopped buying crisps, let her pick 'exotic' fruits at the supermatket to munch on and kicked her off the telly. She's already thinned up. But I find that I think sooo carefully before discussing weight issues with her.

What are they actually planning to do with the information? Pin it onto the classroom wall as a BMI "Fatty" graph? jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

Yeah, because there's no obvious visual way to tell who the fat kids are in your class. This information isn't going to be broadcast to the whole school - it involves a letter being sent home to the kids'parents. Facts, it seems, aren't enough to stop knees from jerking like spastic pythons.

You'd be suprised Rokkit! I don't look at all overweight but am by almost 2 stone. If someone got out the calipers they'd soon get to grips with an unexpected wedge of blubberiness! But no you're right. Children have never needed written confirmation before bullying the fatties! jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

Ummm, some thin kids have terrible levels of cholesterol in their blood, just like some thin adults (more than you'd think). Teaching children to 'diet' is not good. Dieting in itself is not good - healthy balanced eating with some regular exercise is good, but then so's not drinking or smoking or any of those other things people do to take their mind off the fact that one day they will die. It's odd because a lot of people take the dieting idea and think it's about how people 'look' instead of how they feel... unless we can separate the two it is impossible to teach children about healthy eating. It's true that parents are responsible for checking what their children eat, but it is a careful line. Otherwise you see these 7 year old kids talking about their 'fat bellies' and that is one of the scariest things I've ever seen.

Oh, but I think checking children's health is a good thing... but the last thing we need to do is breed a group of scales watchers.

"This information isn't going to be broadcast to the whole school - it involves a letter being sent home to the kids'parents. Facts, it seems, aren't enough to stop knees from jerking like spastic pythons." Well, no but if some people turn up at the school and start weighing everyone, it's likely there'll be some discussion of who might be getting a letter home about there weight. I don't this is a major disaster but an unnecessary extension of the role of the state. I don't think think its the job of the government to tell people how fat or thin they should be.

"This sounds like common sense to me - but then it would, wouldn't it, because I'm a woolly-minded liberal." I think you're getting your politics all mixed up, Timbo. Liberals tend to be for, you know, liberalism? This is the kind of thing ITV and our friends at the Bigot would love, *if* - and it's a big if - it wasn't being implemented by a government they hate slightly more than other people's kids. It isn't particularly draconian, and it's highly unlikely that Orwell will rise from his grave in post-mortal, middle-class fury, but this particular measure is such a waste of time, breath and column space, and seems almost enitrely prompted by end-of-the-world hysteria surrounding unhealthy living. Oh no! Weigh the children or they might die of heart attacks before they're even 100!

There is nothing so informative as a private letter from somebody pointing out the obvious. I think I would reply to such a notification. Dear sir/madam, Are you aware of the large stick that is embedded in your ass? Visit me http://www.radiodenver.org/

It's funny that lisa h's daughter was classified as 'underweight' and eats real food. My son, at the age of 3, was classified as -overweight-, which was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard. He was a solid, perfectly-formed, fatless (as much as one is fatless at three!) kid who eats any kind of fruit, vegetable, or whole-grain product put in front of him. Jude is right, you can't measure weight just by stepping on scales. Surely this is a government knee-jerk preventative reaction to the rapidly increasing obesity levels in the country... it's a noble effort, but I think it's down to educating the parents. Parents nowdays are so bleeding permissive with their children, they think 'give the child everything they want all the time' is a form of love, when the reality is they're killing their kids with a fork and spoon. My daughter would love to eat nothing but crisps and candy, and I, being a cruel boundary-driven mother, flatly refuse except on special occasions. I just don't understand why the parents of these poor at-risk for overweight kids don't see it. It seems so obvious.

The Daily Bigot ran it on the front page today, using their usual schtick of quoting anonymous 'critics of the scheme' to allow them to basically run a crappy front page editorial. Oh no! End to Billy Bunter-style tuck shop high jinks! Fatties to be burnt in special furnaces to heat rest of school! It's not body fascism, it's basic principles of public health. Much easier to change eating habits at seven than at thirty. '...the last thing we need to do is breed a group of scales watchers.' I'd argue that, contrariwise, the last thing we need is a generation of kids growing up with appalling eating habits and becoming a crushing burden on the NHS. Leading a sedentry lifestyle and/or poor nutrition have been shown to be just as damaging to health as smoking. If I had my way the little porkers 'd be doing laps of the playing field whilst their classmates jeered and pelted them with turkey twizzlers.

"It's not body fascism, it's basic principles of public health." Yeah, I mean, let's face it - none of us would even *be* here if it weren't for the government weighing us. It's not body fascism, no. It's just an utterly useless measure that people will find variously irritating, degrading and insulting.

If it helps the fatties lose some weight then what's wrong with it. It's not just academic qualifications that are scutinized on application forms these days. It's a competitive market. The thinner and healthier people are, the better for all of us. And it may help target clinical problems earlier on in life, kerb bullying, and educate children about personal care. Hear my music: http://music.download.com/3600-5-100795586.html

What's wrong with it? It will have absolutely ZERO impact on the problem they are trying to address (actually, trying to look as though they are addressing) It's political and social hog-wash. It's a waste of time and money to address a problem in this way. In a free society, one should be free to over-eat, under-eat, eat properly or eat monkey shit if they so desire. The issue is who ends up paying for it? Get rid of your social health care, or better yet, remove the health benefits from the unhealthy people, let them die out and come up with something better to niggle on about. Sooner or later, everyone will be of perfect weight, have exactly the right skin color and live in a prison. If we write enough letters eventually everything will be perfect, I'm sure of it. Visit me http://www.radiodenver.org/

Damn, Radio, I never guessed you're a Libertarian!

"And it may help target clinical problems earlier on in life, kerb bullying, and educate children about personal care." As a measure for kerbing bullying, it ranks alongside such legendary schemes as "Just ignore them" and "Stay at the other end of the playground".

and I loved this 'The thinner and healthier people are,' as though the two go hand in hand...

unless yan was being sarcastic in which case I'm a fool.

I think it's a common misconception that 'thin = healthy'; but I don't think there can be any argument that a 7-year old weighing 9 stone can possibly be healthy, either...

AG, If being a Libertarian means I don't give a crap what someone sticks in their mouth, then I'm a Libertarian. Visit me http://www.radiodenver.org/

Yeah, I know. But I just hate it when people say 'thin and healthy'... healthy is healthy and unhealthy is unhealthy...

Nah, RD, you're not a Libertarian, in that case; you're just cynical. fergal, I'm with you 100%. I've known too many 'thin' girls who happen to have eating disorders of one sort or another...

They'd be better off spending the money making the little bastards run around more. I seem to reall that being an eight year old mostly involved dashing about like a frightened bunnyrabbit whilst adults tried to make you sit down or, better still, go outside where there was nothing breakable. You could have porbably fed me fried lard sandwiches for all the difference it would have made.

free roller skates for all!

I don't have anything to add here, I'm just following you around, Ferg.

oh yeah, you are aren't you? Have some skates on the house.

The state has now realised that the weight charts they've been measuring baby's progress by for the last thirty years have been wrong. Oops, sorry. The weight gain was based on bottle fed babies, apparently. So thousands of mothers of breastfed babies have been erroneously told their babies are underweight and have been madly pushing baby food into them to catch up. I’ve seen it happen – ‘I know you might want to stop eating now that you’re full, baby, but the clinic says…’

So how come my breastfed babes were fat for their weight? Maybe it was all the ice-cream I was eating at the time...

The best thing may be to inform chillun about how healthy eating will make them feel better, rather than look better. I don't think this will affect bullying in the slightest: As a Primary school "fatty" it was known by all the kids where I was off when I was weighed by the school nurse once a month. I took a bit of a ribbing which stang a little, but the next week the bullies went back to the fact that my dad drove a Skoda, or the fact that I was in Mensa. Adult obesity is a lot harder to tackle. Where I'd said two years ago that nannying to solve this problem wouldn't be deployed, it is happening Oop North without public input (the smoking thing).

Wow, no shit Styx...me too! Another thing we have in common!