Profiteers gain at expense of all the ‘couch potatoes’

Published: 18 June, 2010

• OBESITY among children in Westminster (‘Obesity is killing our kids’, June 11) should be looked at in the broader context of western leadership values of consumerism and free markets. 

Children have no say in the strategic decisions taken by those in authority.

Selling off school playgrounds to raise money is the first own-goal.

The privatisation of leisure facilities brings the profit motive into what should be a social enterprise. 

That is another counter-productive decision. 

It makes going to the gym unaffordable for the vast majority of people.

Government has a cosy relationship with the large multi-national food manufacturers who peddle unhealthy processed foods.

These make them large profits at the expense of public health. 

As in other areas of life our leadership have taken crass and short-sighted decisions which will cost society in the long-term. 

Those in power have let the people down with their failure to see the bigger picture and take decisions based on the long-term health of society.

Sexual abuse in the church, MPs’ expenses, amoral big business, are all symptoms of a deeper malaise. 

Pandering to mammon has got us where we are today. Morally, ethically and financially bankrupt.

BILLY CUDDIHY
Stewarts Road, SW8