Much of this has focused on how the numbers can be reduced and how the causes can be tackled, such as dissuading children from eating too much junk food.

So far, all well and good.

If our children can be persuaded to eat healthier foods, let's go for it.

But what about those children whose weight problems are genetically inherited and therefore not as easily controlled?

What can be done for them which will not add millions to the already overstretched National Health Service purse strings?

And then there was the more ridiculous side of the debate thrown in by so-called experts – should the word obese be used to describe their condition, or should the children be said to be "very overweight"?

Researchers (they get everywhere, don't they?) have apparently found that use of the term "obese" risks alienating parents and turns them off from the "key message".

If that is true, then Mr Pendle has come up with a better and far simpler idea – and he certainly is not an expert.

It might seem cruel, it might seem hurtful, but it is straight to the point and gets the message across just like calling a spade a spade.

What is wrong with simply saying the children are fat?

There is no need for dreaming up fancy phrases for describing the patently obvious.

Just tell things as they are.

That was happened to those who were unfortunate enough to be overweight when Mr Pendle was at school – but then again, all this politically correct nonsense had never been heard of 40 years ago.


SO the average cost of watching a Premier League football match has spiralled to more than £106 per person, according to the chairman of Blackburn Rovers, Mr John Williams.

He expresses concern the game is approaching "breaking point", by which Mr Pendle assumes he means that before long, the genuine football fan will no longer be able to afford to watch the so-called "beautiful game."

What will happen when that day comes?

How will clubs that are already saddled with telephone number debts be able to survive without the money from the mug punters who turn up to watch the pampered prima donnas they worship from the stands?

And how long will it then be before one of the banks to which clubs owe millions of pounds blows the full-time whistle, demands repayment of the money it is owed and the whole rotten house comes crashing down to the ground?