Start tackling obesity: Stop the subsidy on MPs’ food and drink

Published: September 8, 2011

IN the old Glasgow music-hall song, “Twelve and a tanner a Bottle” (lamenting the high price of whisky) one verse goes:

There’s taxes on this.
There’s  taxes on that.
While we’re getting lean
politicians get fat.

So, to set an example, obese politicians such as Lord Prescott, Lord Strathclyde and Eric Pickles, under the watchful eye of Boris Johnson, could embark on a slimming programme.

Johnson must have old chums who are now army officers and he could arrange for the above trio to undergo, for example, “square-bashing” at a barracks and then on to a commando course in the Scottish Highlands.

The aim would be to get them down to the normal weight for men of their height by the London 2012 Olympics. If they fail the test then put them into an army glasshouse for malingering.

That will do the trick and alter their minds about turning drill sergeants into school teachers on “civvy street”.

McDonald’s idea of letting their customers know the calorie content of their foods, should be copied at Westminster but, more importantly, all those men and women who frequent “the Midden” should pay the prices that citizens of the UK have to pay.

They would need counselling to get over the initial shock but in the long run they would be healthier, thus less of a burden on the National Health Service and taxpayers.

I am presuming that, “traditionally” their grub and booze is still subsidised by us.
RHD, WC1
Full name and address supplied