Children being prescribed weight-loss jabs is a wake-up call for the nation, but the pressing question remains: will anyone in power actually listen? The food industry must be held to account, and the poverty that makes unhealthy food the only affordable option must be confronted.
The alarming reality for young children
Four years old and weighing more than five stone. Eleven years old and being prescribed weight-loss injections. Primary school age and already showing the first signs of heart disease. These children did not choose this path. They did not fill their own plates or decide which junk food adverts flashed up on their screens. They have been failed by an industry that pumps cheap, addictive food into every corner of their lives, and by governments too timid to stop it.
A wake-up call ignored?
Kat Jenner of the Obesity Health Alliance is right: this is a wake-up call. The question is whether anyone in power will listen. The clinics treating these children deserve every penny of support, but treatment alone is not enough. The food industry must be held accountable. Junk food advertising must be curbed. And the poverty that makes bad food the only affordable option must be confronted.
Political mettle tested
Keir Starmer has done the hard thing. Now comes the harder part. Admitting mistakes in public takes courage, particularly when the wolves are circling. But Mr Starmer is right to hold his nerve. Nationalising British Steel, banning far-right agitators, and deepening ties with Europe are not the actions of a man without a plan. They are the building blocks of a government needing to find its feet. Angela Rayner is right to argue that tweaks will not be enough. The country needs bold, visible change, and it needs it to happen quickly. But Mr Starmer knows that Labour was elected to make lives better, and he still has the chance to do exactly that.
Berry on top
The nation’s favourite baker, Dame Mary Berry, has been handed the highest honour in British television. Although her Bafta Fellowship is long overdue – she has spent decades in our living rooms, our kitchens, and our hearts – the icing is finally on Mary’s career cake.
