Jon Bright (London, OK): Jill Kirby, who was appointed director of the Centre for Policy Studies yesterday following the departure of Ruth Lea, has been quite prolific on the subject of family values, children, and government intervention. Her work, and other pieces on similar themes, often spring to mind when obesity is in the news - and today BBC News has given this headline pride of place since I got into work: "Obesity 'not individuals' fault'".
It seems to me self-evident that any meaningful call for more participation in systems of government, of the type frequently made on these pages, must go hand in hand with some sort of philosophy of responsibility. Assumptions that underly calls for proportional representation or more local power must contain something of the idea that humans are capable of wielding power effectively, and are not mere victims of circumstance. Over centralisation founds itself on the opposite notion - that the management of all aspects of life must increasingly be placed in the hands of the state - see Kirby's paper on the "Nationalisation of Childhood" (opens pdf).
The report which BBC News is referencing may well be accurate - increasingly sedentary lifestyles, plentiful fatty foods etc. will surely cause trends towards an expanding societal waistline. And I'm not saying obesity isn't a problem, nor that there aren't some people who need assistance in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle - which should be provided. This isn't a simple 'buck your ideas up' rant. What I'm saying is that if we allow ourselves to believe that control of diet is completely beyond the capability of humans we bolster the idea that the state should increase its level of control - draining the idea of responsibility from society. And if we lose the idea of responsibility how can we be entrusted with power?
