In my father's old school photo, circa 1915, when he was about 11, every boy in his class was stick-thin. Now almost a third of them would probably be overweight/obese. I don't expect they want to be. We're often horrid to fat people. Always have been. Billy Bunter, fictional fat pupil at Greyfriars school from 1908 to the early 1960s, was lazy, greedy, had no chums and was there "to provide comic relief". But he was an exception. Not any more.
The world is full of Bunters now. How could it not be? You must have a will of iron, time, energy and money nowadays to stay thin. And you need to be happy. You haven't a hope in hell if you're depressed, ground down, working zero hours and living in a super-obesogenic area. Fielding and his wife were stuck in one of those in the US recently - a poor part of town. They ate fattening dreck for four days, then took the subway for a few stops to Manhattan - Paltrow-land, where there are cleansing organic radishes and quinoa on tap, and ate those. Because they could afford to, just.
This is so corny, what I'm saying, but I feel obliged to drone on about it, because before we reach the tipping point, it's time to stop sneering at fat people, being disapproving and bossing them about: walk to work, eat your greens, control yourselves. They're not to blame. We should attack the real greedies: ruthless big businesses and cheap/fast food producers, who do their absolute best to stuff us with crapola, and their own pockets with money. It's so easy, what with advergames, weedy regulation, ferocious lobbyists, monopolies, "regulatory capture", and with sugar and chips being so delicious, comforting, cheap, and all for sale seconds from a school gate near you.
But how to stop them, with such wet governance? Toughen up leaders. Take the insatiable business monsters on. Don't worry about being called a nanny state.
A good nanny doesn't mock and relentlessly chastise her children when they are struggling with life. She supports them and protects them from the rogues, scoundrels and evils of this world.
Fast food ... you need a will of iron to resist it. Photograph: Mediaphotos/Getty Images